jkJS^..^rfc^'- 


Kature     Pr  ogres '^^ 

Rent 

By 
Thomas  Robert  Malthua 


BMi 


•\ta 


A    Reprint   of  Economic   Tracts 

Edited  by 
JACOB  H.  HOLLANDER,  Ph.  D. 

Associate  Professor  of  Political  Economy 
Johns  Hopkins  University 


Thomas  Robert  Malthus 

on 

The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Rent 
1815 


CorVRKMl  IKLl   1!)0:?,   BY 

THE  .lOHNS  IIOI'KINS  PRESS 


Setoiid  impression ;  reprinted  by  the  Planograph  Method,  December,  1934. 


FrINTEP   in    rNlTED   StATBS   OF  AMERICA 


CD 


INTEODUCTION 

The  date  of  original  publication  of  the  tract  here  reprinted 
can  be  assigned  with  some  certainty  to  the  latter  part  of  January, 
1815.  Before  January  13  of  that  year,  Malthus  was  "  busy  writ- 
ing with  a  view  to  immediate  publication,"  ^  and  by  February  6 

fry  Ricardo  had  read  the  printed  tract  with  care  and  had  begun  to 

^  draft  a  reply.' 

.r-.  Much   greater  difficulty  attends  an  attempt  to  determine  the 

rQ  date  of  composition.     The  "  advertisement "  (p.  9,  below)   states 

that  the  tract  contains  the  substance  of  some  notes  on  rent  which, 
with  others  on  different  subjects  relating  to  political  economy, 
Malthus  had  collected  in  the  course  of  his  professional  duties  at 
the  East  India  College.  Malthus  went  to  Haileybury  in  1807,' 
and  the  notes  in  question  may  have  been  prepared  at  any  time 
within  the  seven  following  years.  It  is  possible  that  they  formed 
the  nucleus  of  the  lecture  course  on  Adam  Smith,  which  Malthus — 
whose  economic  system,  like  Ricardo's  started  from  the  "  Wealth 
of  Nations  " — continued  to  give  for  many  years  thereafter,*  but 
which  at  this  particular  time  he  was  preparing  for  publication 
in  book  form."  Certainly  no  one  can  compare  "  The  Nature  and 
Progress  of  Rent "  with  Malthus'  "  Observations  on  the  Effects 
of  the  Corn  Laws "  published  immediately  before,  and  his 
"  Grounds  of  an  Opinion  on  the  Policy  of  Restricting  the  Impor- 
tation of  Foreign  Corn  "  issued  immediately  thereafter,  without 
realizing  that  the  essay  on  rent,  unlike  the  two  corn-law  pamph- 
lets, was  in  content  and  tone  no  mere  tract  of  the  times,  but  a 
deliberate  academic  study,  brought  by  special  circumstance  to 
earlier  and  unexpected  publication. 

The  hastened  issue  of  the  essay  on  rent,  it  is  now  easy  to  see, 
was  due  more  than  to  any  other  single  factor  to  Malthus'  concern 
at  the  growth  of  public  sentiment  in  England  that  the  landlord 

^ "  Letters  of  David  Ricardo  to  Thomas  Robert  Malthus,  1810- 
1823"   (ed.  Bonar.    Oxford:    1887),  p.  56. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  58;  cf.  Cannan,  "A  History  of  the  Theories  of  Pro- 
duction and  Distribution  in  English  Political  Economy  from 
1776  to  1848"  (London,  1893),  p.  161  n. 

'Bonar,  "Malthus  and  His  Work"  (London,  1885),  p.  417;  the 
date  given 'on  p.  222  is  doubtless  a  misprint. 

* "  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy  "  (ed.  Palgrave.  London 
and  New  York:  1891-1899),  *m&  "Malthus,"  Vol.  II,  p.  677. 

'"Letters  of  Ricardo  to  Malthus"  (ed.  Bonar),  p.  56. 


'31^  ^^ 


67418 


4  Introduction 

was  at  bottom  responsible  for  the  high  price  of  corn.  In  the 
"  Observations  on  the  Effects  of  the  Com  Laws  "  Malthus  had 
asserted  positively  (p.  20)  that  "  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose 
that  the  effects  of  a  fall  in  the  price  of  corn  on  cultivation,  may 
be  fully  compensated  by  a  diminution  of  rents."  In  the  subse- 
quent argument,  and  indeed  throughout  the  "  Observations "  a 
differential  theory  of  rent  was  intimated.^ 

But  a  more  direct  challenge  came  in  David  Buchanan's  edition 
of  the  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  published  at  the  end  of  1814,'  with 
prominent  place  given  to  the  view  that  the  landlord  was  the  real 
beneficiary  of  agricultural  improvements  and  that  rent  itself  was 
due  to  the  monopoly  character  of  land  ownership.  Similar  ex- 
pressions in  Adam  Smith,  Say,  Sismondi,  and  other  "  more  mod- 
ern writers  "  (page  12,  below)  had  been  merely  noted  by  Malthus. 
But  Buchanan's  definite  assertions,  coming  at  a  time  when  hos- 
tility to  landlords  and  to  high  rents  was  in  the  air,  seemed  to 
Malthus  important  enough  to  warrant  a  detailed  "  inquiry  into 
the  nature  and  progress  of  rent." 

If  the  tract  on  rent  thus  owes  its  form  and  publication,  rather 
than  its  conception  and  essence,  to  the  corn-law  controversy  of 
1814,  the  question  at  once  recurs  to  what  earlier  influence,  if  any, 
is  the  genesis  of  the  law  of  diminishing  returns,  as  stated  therein, 
referable.  The  general  answer  is,  of  course,  to  that  extraordinary 
condition  of  British  agriculture  in  the  preceding  decade,  the  con- 
spicuous features  of  which — extension  of  cultivation  and  appli- 
cation of  capital  to  land — were  familiar  to  Malthus  long  before 
parliamentary  blue-books  gave  them  wide  publicity. 

It  is  perhaps  not  fanciful  to  add  to  this  major  force  an  appre- 
ciable influence  from  one  special  circumstance.  Recent  critical 
study  has  made  clear  that  James  Anderson,  often  urged  as  the 
real  author  of  the  Ricardian  law  of  rent,  strenuously  insisted  that 
a  law  of  increasing,  not  of  diminishing  returns  prevailed  in  In- 
tensive cultivation.'  The  first  edition  of  Malthus'  "  Essay  on  the 
Principle  of  Population"  (London,  1798)  contained  no  explicit 
statement  of  a  law  of  diminishing  returns.  But  before  the  sec- 
ond edition  of  the  "  Essay  "  appeared  in  1803,  Malthus  had  read 
Anderson's   "  A   Calm   Investigation   of   the   Circumstances   that 

'See  in  particular  p.  21  et  acq. 

'The  "Introduction"  to  Vol.  IV  ("Observations  on  the  Sub- 
jects Treated  in  Dr  Smith's  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes 
of  the  Wealth  of  Nations")   is  dated  September  14,  1814. 

•  Cf.  Cannan,  "  History  of  Theories  of  Production  and  Distribu- 
tion," pp.  145-146,  220-221,  372  n.;  also  a  paper  by  the  present 
writer  on  "  The  Concept  of  Marginal  Rent "  in  Quarterly  Journal 
of  Economics,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  175-187  (January,  1895). 


Introduction  5 

have  led  to  the  Present  Scarcity  of  Grain  in  Britain  "  (London, 
1801),  if  no  other  of  his  writings,  and  had  noted  its  characteristic 
assertion  that  increased  population  will  always  result  in  increased 
relative  production.'  A  criticism  so  fundamental  of  Malthus' 
own  theory  that  population  tended  to  outrun  subsistence  could 
not  be  neglected,  and  the  second  edition  of  the  "  Essay "  con- 
tained (p.  473)  a  long  note  in  reply  to  Anderson,'"  while  the  text 
of  the  "  Essay  "  thenceforth  intimated  a  law  of  diminishing  re- 
turns in  unmistakable  terms." 

We  have  no  means  of  knowing  whether  Malthus  was  familiar 
with  other  of  Anderson's  writings  in  which  rent  was  clearly  ex- 
plained as  a  consequence  of  differential  costs  in  extensive  cultiva- 
tion, nor  of  the  extent  to  which  any  such  acquaintance  may  have 
influenced  Malthus'  thinking.  Even  more,  the  nature  of  the 
Haileybury  lectures  and  their  precise  relation  to  the  published 
essay  on  rent  are  uncertain.  The  most  that  can  be  hazarded  is  a 
reasonable  likelihood  that  some  part  of  the  clear  statement  of  the 
law  of  diminishing  costs  and  of  the  co-ordination  of  extensive 
and  intensive  cultivation,  which  appeared  in  the  tract  on  rent, 
figured  in  the  Haileybury  lectures,  and  that  James  Anderson  is 
to  be  counted  among  the  influences  which  may  have  affected 
Malthus'  academic  exposition. 

In  the  present  edition  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  reproduce 
the  general  appearance  of  the  title  page  and  the  "  advertisement " 
of  the  tract,  and  a  few  annotations  have  been  appended. 

Baltimore,  March,  1903. 


"Cf.  pp.  35-38,  41,  55,  70-71. 

"The  full  text  of  the  note  is  appended  below  (v.  note  1,  p.  49). 

"Cf.  "Essay"   (2d  ed.),  p.  7. 


AN 


INQUIRY 


THE    NATURE    AND    PROGRESS 


RENT, 


PRINCIPLES  BY  WHICH  IT  IS  REGULATED. 


BY 

THE  REV.  T.  R.  MALTHUS, 

Professor  of  History  and  Political  Economy  in  the  East  India  College, 
Hertfordshire. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED  FOR  JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE  STREET. 

1815. 


Printed  by  J.  F.  Dove,  St.  John's  Square. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 

The  following  Tract  contains  the  substance 
of  some  notes  on  Rent,  which,  with  others  on 
different  subjects  relating  to  political  economy,  I 
have  collected  in  the  course  of  my  professional 
duties  at  the  East  India  College.  It  has  been 
my  intention,  at  some  time  or  other,  to  put  them 
in  a  form  for  publication ;  and  the  very  near 
connextion  of  the  subject  of  the  present  inquiry, 
with  the  topics  immediately  under  discussion, 
has  induced  me  to  hasten  its  appearance  at  the 
present  moment.  It  is  the  duty  of  those  who 
have  any  means  of  contributing  to  the  public 
stock  of  knowledge,  not  only  to  do  so,  but  to  do  it 
at  the  time  when  it  is  most  likely  to  be  useful. 
If  the  nature  of  the  disquisition  should  appear  to 
the  reader  hardly  to  suit  the  form  of  a  pamphlet, 
my  apology  must  be,  that  it  was  not  originally 
intended  for  so  ephemeral  a  shape. 


RENT,  &c. 


THE  rent  of  land  is  a  portion  of  the  national  revenue,  which 
has  always  been  considered  as  of  very  high  importance. 

According  to  Adam  Smith/  it  is  one  of  the  three  original 
sources  of  wealth,  on  which  the  three  great  divisions  of 
society  are  supported. 

By  the  Economists  it  is  so  pre-eminently  distinguished, 
that  it  is  considered  as  exclusively  entitled  to  the  name  of 
riches,  and  the  sole  fund  which  is  capable  of  supporting  the 
taxes  of  the  state,  and  on  which  they  ultimately  fall. 

And  it  has,  perhaps,  a  particular  claim  to  our  attention  at 
the  present  moment,  on  account  of  the  discussions  which 
are  going  on  respecting  the  Corn  Laws,  and  the  effects  of 
rent  on  the  price  of  raw  produce,  and  the  progress  of  agri- 
cultural improvement. 

The  rent  of  land  may  be  defined  to  be  that  portion  of  the 
value  of  the  whole  produce  ||  which  remains  to  the  owner  of 
the  land,  after  all  the  outgoings  belonging  to  its  cultivation, 
of  whatever  kind,  have  been  paid,  including  the  profits  of 
the  capital  employed,  estimated  according  to  the  usual  and 
ordinary  rate  of  the  profits  of  agricultural  stock  at  the  time 
being. 

It  sometimes  happens,  that  from  accidental  and  tempor- 
ary circumstances,  the  farmer  pays  more,x)r  less,  than  this; 
but  this  is  the  point  towards  which  the  actual  rents  paid 
are  constantly  gravitating,  and  which  is  therefore  always 
referred  to  when  the  term  is  used  in  a  general  sense. 


12  Thomas  Robert  Malthus 

The  immediate  cause  of  rent  is  obviously  the  excess  of 
price  above  the  cost  of  production  at  which  raw  produce 
sells  in  the  market. 

The  first  object  therefore  which  presents  itself  for  in- 
quiry, is  the  cause  or  causes  of  the  high  price  of  raw  produce. 

After  very  careful  and  repeated  revisions  of  the  subject, 
I  do  not  find  myself  able  to  agree  entirely  in  the  view  taken 
of  it,  either  by  Adam  Smith,  or  the  Economists;  and  still 
less,  by  some  more  modem  writers. 

Almost  all  these  writers  appear  to  me  to  consider  rent 
as  too  nearly  resembling  in  its  nature,  and  the  laws  by  which 
it  is  governed,  the  excess  of  price  above  the  cost  of  produc- 

3  tion,  which  is  the  characteristic  of  a  monopoly.  || 

x\dam  Smith,  though  in  some  parts  of  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  his  first  book  he  contemplates  rent  quite  in  its 
true  light,*  and  has  interspersed  through  his  work  more 
just  observations  on  the  subject  than  any  other  writer,  has 
not  explained  the  most  essential  cause  of  the  high  price  of 
raw  produce  with  sufficient  distinctness,  though  he  often 
touches  on  it ;  and  by  applying  occasionally  the  term  monop- 
oly to  the  rent  of  land,'  without  stopping  to  mark  its  more 
radical  peculiarities,  he  leaves  the  reader  without  a  definite 
impression  of  the  real  difference  between  the  cause  of  the 
high  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  of  monopolized  com- 
modities. 

Some  of  the  views  which  the  Economists  have  taken  of  the 
nature  of  rent  appeai;  to  me,  in  like  manner,  to  be  quite  just ; 
but  they  have  mixed  them  with  so  much  error,  and  have 
drawn  such  preposterous  and  contradictory  conclusions  from 

4  them,  that  what  is  true  in  ||  their  doctrines,  has  been  ob- 

*  I  cannot,  however,  agree  with  him  in  thinking  that  all  land 
which  yields  food  must  necessarily  yield  rent.  The  land  which 
is  successively  taken  into  cultivation  in  improving  countries,  may 
only  pay  profits  and  labour.  A  fair  profit  on  the  stock  employed, 
including,  of  course,  the  payment  of  labour,  will  always  be  a 
sufficient  inducement  to  cultivate. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Eent  13 

Bcured  and  lost  in  the  mass  of  superincumbent  error,  and 
has  in  consequence  produced  little  effect.  Their  great  prac- 
tical conclusion,  namely,  the  propriety  of  taxing  exclusively 
the  neat  rents  of  the  landlords,  evidently  depends  upon  their 
considering  these  rents  as  completely  disposeable,  like  that 
excess  of  price  above  the  cost  of  production  which  distin- 
guishes a  common  monopoly. 

Mr.  Say,  in  his  valuable  Treatise  on  Political  Economy,*  in 
v^hich  he  has  explained  with  great  clearness  many  points 
which  have  not  been  sufficiently  developed  by  Adam  Smith, 
has  not  treated  the  subject  of  rent  in  a  manner  entirely 
satisfactory.  In  speaking  of  the  different  natural  agents 
which,  as  well  as  the  land,  co-operate  with  the  labours  of 
man,  he  observes :  "  Heureusement  personne  n'a  pu  dire  le 
vent  et  le  soleil  m'appartiennent,  et  le  service  qu'ils  rendent 
doit  m'etre  pay6."  *  And,  though  he  acknowledges  that, 
for  obvious  reasons,  property  in  land  is  necessary,  yet  he 
evidently  considers  rent  as  almost  exclusively  owing  |  to 
such  appropriation,  and  to  external  demand. 

In  the  excellent  work  of  M.  de  Sismondi,  De  la  Richesse 
Commerciale^  he  says  in  a  note  on  the  subject  of  rent:  "  Cette 
partie  de  la  rente  fonci^re  est  celle  que  les  Economietes 
ont  decoree  du  nom  du  produit  net  comme  etant  le  seul  fruit 
du  travail  qui  ajoutat  quelquechose '  a  la  richesse  nationale. 
On  pourroit  au  contraire  soutenir  contre  eux,  que  c'est  la 
seule  partie  du  produit  du  travail,  dont  la  valeur  soit  pure- 
ment  nominale,  et  n'ait  rien  de  reelle :  c'est  en  eff et  le  resul- 
tat  de  I'augmentation  de  prix  qu'obtient  im  vendeur  en  v6rtu 
de  son  privilege,  sans  que  la  chose  vendue  en  vaille  reeUe- 
ment  d'avantage.''  f 

The  prevailing  opinions  among  the  more  modem  writers 
in  our  own  country,  have  appeared  to  me  to  incline  towards 

*  Vol.  II.  p.  124.  Of  this  work  a  new  and  much  improved 
edition  has  lately  been  published,  which  is  highly  worthy  the 
attention  of  all  those  who  take  an  interest  in  these  subjects. 

tVol.  I.  p.  49. 


14  Thomas  Robeet  Malthus 

a  similar  view  of  the  subject;  and,  not  to  multiply  citations, 
I  shall  only  add,  that  in  a  very  respectable  edition  of  the 
Wealth  of  Nations,  lately  published  by  Mr.  Buchanan,  of 
Edinburgh,'  the  idea  of  monopoly  is  pushed  still  farther. 
And  while  former  writers,  though  they  considered  rent  as 
governed  by  the  laws  of  monopoly,  were  still  of  opinion  that 
6  this  monopoly  in  the  case  of  ||  land  was  necessary  and  useful, 
Mr.  Buchanan  sometimes  speaks  of  it  even  as  prejudicial, 
and  as  depriving  the  consumer  of  what  it  gives  to  the  land- 
lord. 

In  treating  of  productive  and  unproductive  labour  in  the 
last  volume,  he  observes,*  that,  "  The  neat  surplus  by  which 
the  Economists  estimate  the  utility  of  agriculture,  plainly 
arises  from  the  high  price  of  its  produce,  which,  however 
advantageous  to  the  landlord  who  receives  it,  is  surely  no 
advantage  to  the  consumer  who  pays  it.  Were  the  produce 
of  agriculture  to  be  sold  for  a  lower  price,  the  same  neat 
surplus  would  not  remain,  after  defraying  the  expenses  of 
cultivation;  but  agriculture  would  be  still  equally  produc- 
tive to  the  general  stock;  and  the  only  difference  would  be, 
that  as  the  landlord  was  formerly  enriched  by  the  high 
price,  at  the  expense  of  the  community,  the  community  would 
now  profit  by  the  low  price  at  the  expense  of  the  landlord. 
The  high  price  in  which  the  rent  or  neat  surplus  originates, 
while  it  enriches  the  landlord  who  has  the  produce  of  agri- 
culture to  sell,  diminishes  in  the  same  proportion  the  wealth 
of  those  who  are  its  purchasers;  and  on  this  account  it  is 
V  7  quite  inaccurate  to  consider  the  landlord's  rent  as  a  clear  || 
addition  to  the  national  wealth."  In  other  parts  of  his 
work  he  uses  the  same,  or  even  stronger  language,  and  in 
a  note  on  the  subject  of  taxes,  he  speaks  of  the  high  price 
of  the  produce  of  land  as  advantageous  to  those  who  receive 
it,  but  proportionably  injurious  to  those  who  pay  it.  "  In 
this  view,"  he  adds,  "  it  can  form  no  general  addition  to  the 
stock  of  the  community,  as  the  neat  surplus  in  question  is 

*  Vol.  IV.  p.  134. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Kent  15 

nothing  more  than  a  revenue  transferred  from  one  class  to 
another,  and  from  the  mere  circumstance  of  its  thus  chang- 
ing hands,  it  is  clear  that  no  fund  can  arise  out  of  which  to 
pay  taxes.  The  revenue  which  pays  for  the  produce  of  land 
exists  already  in  the  hands  of  those  who  purchase  that  pro- 
duce; and,  if  the  price  of  subsistence  were  lower,  it  would 
still  remain  in  their  hands,  where  it  would  be  just  as  availa- 
*  ble  for  taxation,  as  when  by  a  higher  price  it  is  transferred 
to  the  landed  proprietor."  * 

That  there  are  some  circumstances  connected  with  rent, 
which  have  an  affinity  to  a  natural  monopoly,  will  be '  readily 
allowed.  The  extent  of  the  earth  itself  is  limited,  and  can- 
not be  enlarged  by  human  demand.  And  the  inequality  of 
soils  occasions,  even  at  an  early  ||  period  of  society,  a  com- 
parative scarcity  of  the  best  lands ;  and  so  far  is  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  causes  of  rent  properly  so  called.  On  this  ac- 
count, perhaps,  the  term  partial  monopoly  might  be  fairly 
applicable.  But  the  scarcity  of  land,  thus  implied,  is  by  no 
means  alone  sufficient  to  produce  the  effects  observed.  And 
a  more  accurate  investigation  of  the  subject  will  shew  us 
how  essentially  different  the  high  price  of  raw  produce  is, 
both  in  its  nature  and  origin,  and  the  laws  by  which  it  is 
governed,  from  the  high  price  of  a  common  monopoly. 

The  causes  of  the  high  price  of  raw  produce  may  be  stated 
to  be  three. 

First,  and  mainly,  That  quality  of  the  earth,  by  which  it 
can  be  made  to  yield  a  greater  portion  of  the  necessaries  of 
life  than  is  required  for  the  maintenance  of  the  persons  em- 
ployed on  the  land. 

2dly,  That  quality  peculiar  to  the  necessaries  of  life  of 
being  able  to  create  their  own  demand,  or  to  raise  up  a  num- 
ber of  demanders  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  neces- 
saries produced. 

And,  3dly,  The  comparative  scarcity  of  the  most  fertile 
land. 

*Vol.  III.  p.  272.» 


16  Thomas  Robeet  Malthus 

The  qualities  of  the  soil  and  of  its  products,  here  noticed 
as  the  primary  causes  of  the  high  price  of  raw  produce,  are 
9  the  ^fts  of  II  nature  to  man.  They  are  quite  unconnected 
with  monopoly,  and  yet  are  so  absolutely  essential  to  the 
existence  of  rent,  that  without  them,  no  degree  of  scarcity 
or  monopoly  could  have  occasioned  that  excess  of  the  price 
.,  of  raw  produce,  above  the  cost  of  production,  which  shews 
itself  in  this  form. 

If,  for  instance,  the  soil  of  the  earth  had  been  such,  that, 
however  well  directed  might  have  been  the  industry  of  man, 
he  could  not  have  produced  from  it  more  than  was  barely 
sufficient  to  maintain  those,  whose  labour  and  attention  were 
necessary  to  its  products;  though,  in  this  case,  food  and 
raw  materials  would  have  been  evidently  scarcer  than  at  pres- 
ent, and  the  land  might  have  been,  in  the  same  manner, 
monopolized  by  particular  owners ;  yet  it  is  quite  clear,  that 
neither  rent,  nor  any  essential  surplus  produce  of  the  land 
in  the  form  of  high  profits,  could  have  existed. 

It  is  equally  clear,  that  if  the  necessaries  of  life — the 
most  important  products  of  land,  had  not  the  property  of 
creating  an  increase  of  demand  proportioned  to  their  in- 
creased quantity,  such  increased  quantity  would  occasion  a  fall 
in  their  exchangeable  value.  However  abundant  might  be 
the  produce  of  a  country,  its  population  might  remain  sta- 
tionary. And  this  abundance,  without  a  proportionate  de- 
10  mand,  ||  and  with  a  very  high  corn-price  of  labour,  which 
would  naturally  take  place  under  these  circumstances,  might 
reduce  the  price  of  raw  produce,  like  the  price  of  manufac- 
tures, to  the  cost  of  production. 

It  has  been  sometimes  argued,  that  it  is  mistaking  the 
principle  of  population,  to  imagine,  that  the  increase  of  food, 
or  of  raw  produce  alone,  can  occasion  a  proportionate  in- 
crease of  population.  This  is  no  doubt  true;  but  it  must  be 
allowed,  as  has  been  justly  observed  by  Adam  Smith,  that 
"when  food  is  provided,  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  find  the 
necessary  clothing  and  lodging." "  And  it  should  always 
be  recollected,  that  land  does  not  produce  one  commodity 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Rent  17 

alone,  but  in  addition  to  that  most  indispensable  of  all 
commodities — food,  it  produces  also  the  materials  for  the 
other  necessaries  of  life;  and  the  labour  required  to  work  up 
these  materials  is  of  course  never  excluded  from  the  consider- 
ation.* II  11 

It  is,  therefore,  strictly  true,  that  land  produces  the  neces- 
saries of  life, — produces  food,  materials,  and  labour, — pro-  >^- 
duces  the  means  by  which,  and  by  which  alone,  an  increase  \ 
of  people  may  be  brought  into  being,  and  supported.  In 
this  respect  it  is  fundamentally  different  from  every  other 
kind  of  machine  known  to  man;  and  it  is  natural  to  sup- 
pose, that  it  should  be  attended  with  some  peculiar  effects.   __ 

If  the  cotton  machinery,  in  this  country,  were  to  go  on 
increasing  at  its  present  rate,  or  even  much  faster;  but  in- 
stead of  producing  one  particular  sort  of  substance  which 
may  be  used  for  some  parts  of  dress  and  furniture,  &c.  had 
the  qualities  of  land,  and  could  yield  what,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  a  little  labour,  economy,  and  skill,  could  furnish 
food,  clothing,  and  lodging,  in  such  proportions  as  to  create 
an  increase  of  population  equal  to  the  increased  supply  of 
these  necessaries;  the  demand  for  the  products  of  such  im- 
proved machinery  would  continue  in  excess  above  the  cost  of 
production,  and  this  excess  would  no  ||  longer  exclusively  be-  12 
long  to  the  machinery  of  the  land.f 

*  It  is,  however,  certain,  that  if  either  these  materials  be  want- 
ing, or  the  skill  and  capital  necessary  to  work  them  up  be  pre- 
vented from  forming,  owing  to  the  insecurity  of  property,  or 
any  other  cause,  the  cultivators  will  soon  slacken  in  their  exer- 
tions, and  the  motives  to  accumulate  and  to  increase  their  produce, 
will  greatly  diminish.  But  in  this  case  there  will  be  a  very  slack 
demand  for  labour;  and,  whatever  may  be  the  nominal  cheapness 
of  provisions,  the  labourer  will  not  really  be  able  to  command 
such  a  portion  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  including,  of  course^ 
clothing,  lodging,  &c.  as  will  occasion  an  Increase  of  population. 

t  I  have  supposed  some  check  to  the  supply  of  the  cotton 
machinery  in  this  case.  If  there  was  no  check  whatever,  the 
effects  would  shew  themselves  in  excessive  profits  and  excessive 
wages,  without  an  excess  above  the  cost  of  production. 


18  Thomas  Egbert  Maltbtus 

There  is  a  radical  difference  in  the  cause  of  a  demand 
for  those  objects  which  are  strictly  necessary  to  the  support 
of  human  life,  and  a  demand  for  all  other  commodities. 
In  all  other  commodities  the  demand  is  exterior  to,  and 
independent  of,  the  production  itself;  and  in  the  case  of  a 
monopoly,  whether  natural  or  artificial,  the  excess  of  price 
is  in  proportion  to  the  smallness  of  the  supply  compared  with 
the  demand,  while  this  demand  is  comparatively  unlimited. 
In  the  case  of  strict  necessaries,  the  existence  and  increase 
of  the  demand,  or  of  the  number  of  demanders,  must  depend 
upon  the  existence  and  increase  of  these  necessaries  them- 
selves; and  the  excess  of  their  price  above  the  cost  of  their 
production  must  depend  upon,  and  is  permanently  limited  by, 
the  excess  of  their  quantity  above  the  quantity  necessary  to 
maintain  the  labour  required  to  produce  them ;  without  which 
13  excess  of  quantity  no  demand  could  have  existed,  ||  according 
to  the  laws  of  nature,  for  more  than  was  necessary  to  support 
the  producers. 

It  has  been  stated,  in  the  new  edition  of  the  "  Wealth  of 
Nations,"  that  the  cause  of  the  high  price  of  raw  produce  is, 
that  such  price  is  required  to  proportion  the  consumption 
to  the  supply.*  This  is  also  true,  but  it  affords  no  solution 
of  the  point  in  question.  We  still  want  to  know  why  the 
consumption  and  supply  are  such  as  to  make  the  price  so 
greatly  exceed  the  cost  of  production,  and  the  main  cause  is 
evidently  the  fertility  of  the  earth  in  producing  the  neces- 
saries of  life.  Diminish  this  plenty,  diminish  the  fertility 
of  the  soil,  and  the  excess  will  diminish;  diminish  it  still 
further,  and  it  will  disappear.  The  cause  of  the  high  price 
of  the  necessaries  of  life  above  the  cost  of  productioji,  is  to 
be  found  in  their  abimdance,  rather  than  their  scarcity; 
and  is  not  only  essentially  different  from  the  high  price  oc- 
casioned by  artificial  monopolies,  but  from  the  high  price 
of  those  peculiar  products  of  the  earth,  not  connected  with 
food,  which  may  be  called  natural  and  necessary  monopolies. 

♦Vol.  Iv.  p.  35. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Rent  19 

The  produce  of  certain  vineyards  in  France,  which,  from 
the  peculiarity  of  their  soil  and  ||  situation,  exclusively  yield  14 
wine  of  a  certain  flavour,  is  sold  of  course  at  a  price  very  far 
exceeding  the  cost  of  production.  And  this  is  owing  to  the 
greatness  of  the  competition  for  such  wine,  compared  with 
the  scantiness  of  its  supply;  which  confines  the  use  of  it  to 
so  small  a  number  of  persons,  that  they  are  able,  and  rather 
than  go  without  it,  willing,  to  give  an  excessively  high  price. 
But  if  the  fertility  of  these  lands  were  increased,  so  as  very 
considerably  to  increase  the  produce,  this  produce  might  so 
fall  in  value  as  lo  diminish  most  essentially  the  excess  of  its 
price  above  the  cost  of  production.  While,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  the  vineyards  were  to  become  less  productive,  this 
excess  might  increase  to  almost  any  extent. 

The  obvious  cause  of  these  effects  is,  that  in  all  monopolies, 
properly  so  called,  whether  natural  or  artificial,  the  demand 
is  exterior  to,  and  independent  of,  the  production  itself. 
The  nimiber  of  persons  who  might  have  a  taste  for  scarce 
wines,  and  would  be  desirous  of  entering  into  a  competition 
for  the  purchase  of  them,  might  increase  almost  indefinitely, 
while  the  produce  itself  was  decreasing;  and  its  price,  there- 
fore, would  have  no  other  limit  than  the  niunbers,  powers, 
and  caprices,  of  the  competitors  for  it.  ||  15 

In  the  production  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  demand  is  dependent  upon  the  produce  itself; 
and  the  effects  are,  in  consequence,  widely  different.  In 
this  case,  it  is  physically  impossible  that  the  number  of 
demanders  should  increase,  while  the  quantity  of  produce 
diminishes,  as  the  demanders  only  exist  by  means  of  this 
produce.  The  fertility  of  soil,  and  consequent  abundance 
of  produce  from  a  certain  quantity  of  land,  which,  in  the 
former  case,  diminished  the  excess  of  price  above  the  cost 
of  production,  is,  in  the  present  case,  the  specific  cause  of 
such  excess;  and  the  diminished  fertility,  which  in  the 
former  case  might  increase  the  price  to  almost  any  excess 
above  the  cost  of  production,  may  be  safely  asserted  to  be 
the  sole  cause  which  could  permanently  maintain  the  neces- 


20  Thomas  Egbert  Malthus 

saries  of  life  at  a  price  not  exceeding  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion, 

Is  it,  then,  possible  to  consider  the  price  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life  as  regulated  upon  the  principle  of  a  common 
monopoly?  Is  it  possible,  with  M.  de  Sismondi,  to  regard 
rent  as  the  sole  produce  of  labour,  which  has  a  value  purely 
nominal,  and  the  mere  result  of  that  augmentation  of  price 
which  a  seller  obtains  in  consequence  of  a  peculiar  privilege : 
or,  with  Mr,  Buchanan,  to  consider  it  as  no  addition  to  the 

16  national  wealth,  but  merely  as  a  trans-  ||  fer  of  value,  advan- 
tageous only  to  the  landlords,  and  proportionably  injurious 
to  the  consumers? 

Is  it  not,  on  the  contrary,  a  clear  indication  of  a  most  in- 
estimable quality  in  the  soil,  which  God  has  bestowed  on 
man — the  quality  of  being  able  to  maintain  more  persons 
than  are  necessary  to  work  it.  Is  it  not  a  part,  and  we 
shall  see  further  on  that  it  is  an  absolutely  necessary  part, 
of  that  surplus  produce  from  the  land,*  which  has  been 
justly  stated  to  be  the  source  of  all  power  and  enjoyment; 
and  without  which,  in  fact,  there  would  be  no  cities,  no 
military  or  naval  force,  no  arts,  no  learning,  none  of  the 
finer  manufactures,  none  of  the  conveniences  and  luxuries 
of  foreign  cou'ntries,  and  none  of  that  cultivated  and  pol- 
ished society,  which  not  only  elevates  and  dignifies  individ- 

17  uals,  but  which  extends  its  ||  beneficial  influence  through  the 
whole  mass  of  the  people  ? 

In  the  early  periods  of  society,  or  more  remarkably  per- 
haps, when  the  knowledge  and  capital  of  an  old  society  are 

*  The  more  general  surplus  here  alluded  to  is  meant  to  include 
the  profits  of  the  farmer,  as  well  as  the  rents  of  the  landlord; 
and,  therefore,  includes  the  whole  fund  for  the  support  of  those 
who  are  not  directly  employed  upon  the  land.  Profits  are,  in 
reality,  a  surplus,  as  they  are  in  no  respect  proportioned  (as  inti- 
mated by  the  Economists)  to  the  wants  and  necessities  of  the 
owners  of  capital.  But  they  take  a  different  course  in  the  pro- 
gress of  society  from  rents,  and  it  is  necessary,  in  general,  to 
keep  them  quite  separate. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Bent  21 

employed  upon  fresh  and  fertile  land,  this  surplus  produce, 
this  bountiful  gift  of  Providence,  shews  itself  chiefly  in  extra- 
ordinary high  profits,  and  extraordinary  high  wages,  and 
appears  but  little  in  the  shape  of  rent.  While  fertile  land 
is  in  abundance,  and  may  be  had  by  whoever  asks  for  it, 
nobody  of  course  will  pay  a  rent  to  a  landlord.  But  it  is 
not  consistent  with  the  laws  of  nature,  and  the  limits  and 
quality  of  the  earth,  that  this  state  of  things  should  continue. 
Diversities  of  soil  and  situation  must  necessarily  exist  in  all 
countries.  All  land  cannot  be  the  most  fertile:  all  situa- 
tions cannot  be  the  nearest  to  navigable  rivers  and  markets. 
But  the  accumulation  of  capital  beyond  the  means  of  em- 
ploying it  on  land  of  the  greatest  natural  fertility,  and  the 
greatest  advantage  of  situation,  must  necessarily  lower  pro- 
fits; while  the  tendency  of  population  to  increase  beyond  the 
means  of  subsistence  must,  after  a  certain  time,  lower  the 
wages  of  labour. 

The  expense  of  production  will  thus  be  diminished,  but 
the  value  of  the  produce,  that  is,  the  quantity  of  labour,  and 
of  the  other  pro-  ||  ducts  of  labour  besides  corn,  which  it  18 
can  command,  instead  of  diminishing,  will  be  increased. 
There  will  be  an  increasing  number  of  people  demanding 
subsistence,  and  ready  to  offer  their  services  in  any  way  in 
which  they  can  be  useful.  The  exchangeable  value  of  food 
will,  therefore,  be  in  excess  above  the  cost  of  production, 
including  in  this  cost  the  full  profits  of  the  stock  employed 
upon  the  land,  according  to  the  actual  rate  of  profits,  at  the 
time  being.     And  this  excess  is  rent. 

Nor  is  it  possible  that  these  rents  should  permanently 
remain  as  parts  of  the  profits  of  stock,  or  of  the  wages  of 
labour.  If  such  an  accumulation  were  to  take  place,  as  de- 
cidedly to  lower  the  general  profits  of  stock,  and,  conse- 
quently, the  expenses  of  cultivation,  so  as  to  make  it  answer 
to  cultivate  poorer  land;  the  cultivators  of  the  richer  land, 
if  they  paid  no  rent,  would  cease  to  be  mere  farmers,  or  per- 
sons living  upon  the  profits  of  agricultural  stock.  They 
would  unite  the  characters  of  farmers  and  landlords, — a 


22  Thomas  Robert  Malthus 

union  by  no  means  uncommon;  but  which  does  not  alter,  in 
any  degree,  the  nature  of  rent,  or  its  essential  separation 
from  profits.  If  the  general  profits  of  stock  were  20  per 
cent,  and  particular  portions  of  land  would  yield  30  per  cent. 

19  on  the  capital  employed,  10  per  cent,  of  the  30  ||  would  ob- 
viously be  rent,  by  whomsoever  received. 

It  happens,  indeed,  sometimes,  that  from  bad  govern- 
ment, extravagant  habits,  and  a  faulty  constitution  of  so- 
ciety, the  accumulation  of  capital  is  stopped,  while  fertile 
land  is  in  considerable  plenty,  in  which  case  profits  may  con- 
tinue permanently  very  high;  but  even  in  this  case  wages 
must  necessarily  faU,  which  by  reducing  the  expenses  of  cul- 
tivation must  occasion  rents.  There  is  nothing  so  absolutely 
imavoidable  in  the  progress  of  society  as  the  fall  of  wages, 
that  is  such  a  fall  as,  combined  with  the  habits  of  the  labour- 
ing classes,  will  regulate  the  progress  of  population  accord- 
ing to  the  means  of  subsistence.  And  when,  from  the 
want  of  an  increase  of  capital,  the  increase  of  produce  is 
checked,  and  the  means  of  subsistence  come  to  a  stand,  the 
wages  of  labour  must  necessarily  fall  so  low,  as  only  just  to 
maintain  the  existing  population,  and  to  prevent  any  in- 
crease. 

We  observe  in  consequence,  that  in  all  those  countries, 
such  as  Poland,  where,  from  the  want  of  accumulation,  the 
profits  of  stock  remain  very  high,  and  the  progress  of  culti- 
vation either  proceeds  very  slowly,  or  is  entirely  stopped,  the 
wages  of  labour  are  extremely  low.     And  this  cheapness  of 

20  labour,  by  di- 1|  minishing  the  expenses  of  cultivation,  as 
far  as  labour  is  concerned,  counteracts  the  effects  of  the 
high  profits  of  stock,  and  generally  leaves  a  larger  rent  to 
the  landlord  than  in  those  countries,  such  as  America,  where, 
by  a  rapid  accumulation  of  stock,  which  can  still  find  ad- 
vantageous employment,  and  a  great  demand  for  labour, 
which  is  accompanied  by  an  adequate  increase  of  produce 
and  population,  profits  cannot  be  low,  and  labour  for  some 
considerable  time  remains  very  high. 

It  may  be  laid  down,  therefore,  as  an  incontrovertible 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Eent  23 

truth,  that  as  a  nation  reaches  any  considerable  degree  of 
wealth,  and  any  considerable  fullness  of  population,  which  of 
course  cannot  take  place  without  a  great  fall  both  in  the 
profits  of  stock  and  the  wages  of  labour,  the  separation  of 
rents,  as  a  kind  of  fixture  upon  lands  of  a  certain  quality,  is 
a  law  as  invariable  as  the  action  of  the  principle  of  gravity. 
And  that  rents  are  neither  a  mere  nominal  value,  nor  a  value 
unnecessarily  and  injuriously  transferred  from  one  set  of 
people  to  another;  but  a  most  real  and  essential  part  of  the 
whole  value  of  the  national  property,  and  placed  by  the 
laws  of  nature  where  they  are,  on  the  land,  by  whomsover 
possessed,  whether  the  landlord,  the  crown,  or  the  actual 
cultivator. 

Kent  then  has  been  traced  to  the  same  com-  ||  mon  nature  21 
with  that  general  surplus  from  the  land,  which  is  the  result 
of  certain  qualities  of  the  soil  and  its  products;  and  it  has 
been  found  to  commence  its  separation  from  profits,  as  soon 
as  profits  and  wages  fall,  owing  to  the  comparative  scarcity 
of  fertile  land  in  the  natural  progress  of  a  country  towards 
wealth  and  population. 

Having  examined  the  nature  and  origin  of  rent,  it  remains 
for  us  to  consider  the  laws  by  which  it  is  governed,  and 
by  which  its  increase  or  decrease  is  regulated. 

When  capital  has  accumulated,  and  labour  fallen  on  the 
most  eligible  lands  of  a  country,  other  lands  less  favourably 
circumstanced  with  respect  to  fertility  or  situation,  may  be 
occupied  with  advantage.  The  expenses  of  cultivation,  in- 
cluding profits,  having  fallen,  poorer  land,  or  land  more 
distant  from  markets,  though  yielding  at  first  no  rent,  may 
fully  repay  these  expenses,  and  fully  answer  to  the  cultivator. 
And  again,  when  either  the  profits  of  stock  or  the  wages  of 
labour,  or  both,  have  still  further  fallen,  land  still  poorer, 
or  still  less  favourably  situated,  may  be  t^ken  into  cultiva- 
tion. And,  at  every  step,  it  is  clear,  that  if  the  price  of 
produce  does  not  fall,  the  rents  of  land  will  rise.  And  the 
price  of  produce  will  not  fall,  as  long  as  the  industry  and  in- 
genuity of  the  labouring  classes,  assisted  by  the  capitals  of  ||   22 


24  Thomas  Robert  Malthus 

those  not  employed  upon  the  land,  can  find  something  to 
give  in  exchange  to  the  cultivators  and  landlords,  which 
will  stimulate  them  to  continue  undiminished  their  agricul- 
tural exertions,  and  maintain  their  increasing  excess  of  pro- 
duce. 

In  tracing  more  particularly  the  laws  which  govern  the 
rise  and  fall  of  rents,  the  main  causes  which  diminish  the  ex- 
penses of  cultivation,  or  reduce  the  cost  of  the  instruments 
of  production,  compared  with  the  price  of  produce,  require 
to  be  more  specifically  enumerated.  The  principal  of  these 
seem  to  be  four: — Ist,  Such  an  accumulation  of  capital  as 
will  lower  the  profits  of  stock;  2dly,  such  an  increase  of  pop- 
ulation as  will  lower  the  wages  of  labour;  3dly,  such  agricul- 
tural improvements,  or  such  increase  of  exertions,  as  will 
diminish  the  number  of  labourers  necessary  to  produce  a 
given  effect ;  and  4thly,  such  an  increase  in  the  price  of  agri- 
cultural produce,  from  increased  demand,  as  without  nomin- 
ally lowering  the  expense  of  production,  will  increase  the 
difference  between  this  expense  and  the  price  of  produce. 

The  operation  of  the  three  first  causes  in  lowering  the 
expenses  of  cultivation,  compared  with  the  price  of  produce, 
are  quite  obvious;  the  fourth  requires  a  few  further  obser- 
23  vations.  || 

If  a  great  and  continued  demand  should  arise  among  sur- 
rounding nations  for  the  raw  produce  of  a  particular  coun- 
try, the  price  of  this  produce  would  of  course  rise  consider- 
ably; and  the  expenses  of  cultivation,  rising  only  slowly  and 
gradually  to  the  same  proportion,  the  price  of  produce  might 
for  a  long  time  keep  so  much  a  head,  as  to  give  a  prodigious 
stimulus  to  improvement,  and  encourage  the  emplo3Tnent  of 
much  capital  in  bringing  fresh  land  under  cultivation,  and 
rendering  the  old  much  more  productive. 

Nor  would  the  effect  be  essentially  different  in  a  country 
which  continued  to  feed  its  own  people,  if  instead  of  a  de- 
mand for  its  raw  produce,  there  was  the  same  increasing  de- 
mand for  its  manufactures.  These  manufactures,  if  from 
such  a  demand  the  value  of  their  amount  in  foreign  countries 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Eent  25 

was  greatly  to  increase,  would  bring  back  a  great  increase  of 
value  in  return,  which  increase  of  value  could  not  fail  to  in- 
crease the  value  of  the  raw  produce.  The  demand  for  agri-  »-. 
cultural  as  well  as  manufactured  produce  would  be  aug-  ^  ^ 
mented ;  and  a  considerable  stimulus,  though  not  perhaps  to 
the  same  extent  as  in  the  last  case,  would  be  given  to  every 
kind  of  improvement  on  the  land. 

A  similar  effect  would  be  produced  by  the  ||  introduction  34 
of  new  machinery,  and  a  more  judicious  division  of  labour 
in  manufactures.  It  almost  always  happens  in  this  case 
not  only  that  the  quantity  of  manufactures  is  very  greatly 
increased,  but  that  the  value  of  the  whole  mass  is  aug- 
mented, from  the  great  extension  of  the  demand  for  them, 
occasioned  by  their  cheapness.  We  see,  in  consequence,  that 
in  all  rich  manufacturing  and  commercial  countries,  the 
value  of  manufactured  and  conmiercial  products  bears  a  very 
high  proportion  to  the  raw  products;*  whereas,  in  compara- 
tively poor  countries,  without  much  internal  trade  and  for- 
eign commerce,  the  value  of  their  raw  produce  constitutes 
almost  the  whole  of  their  wealth.  If  we  suppose  the  wages 
of  labour  so  to  rise  with  the  rise  of  produce,  as  to  give  the 
labourer  the  same  command  of  the  means  of  subsistence  as 
before,  yet  if  he  is  able  to  purchase  a  greater  quantity  of 
other  necessaries  and  conveniencies,  both  foreign  and  do-  ||  25 
mestic,  with  the  price  of  a  given  quantity  of  corn,  he  may 
be  equally  well  fed,  clothed,  and  lodged,  and  population  may 
be  equally  encouraged,  although  the  wages  of  labour  may 
not  rise  so  high  in  proportion  as  the  price  of  produce. 

And  even   when  the  price  of  labour  does  really  rise  in 

♦  According  to  the  calculations  of  Mr.  Colquhoun,  the  value  of 
our  trade,  foreign  and  domestic,  and  of  our  manufactures,  ex- 
clusive of  raw  materials,  is  nearly  equal  to  the  gross  value 
derived  from  the  land.  In  no  other  large  country  probably  is 
this  the  case. — Treatise  on  the  Wealth,  Power,  and  Resources  of 
the  British  Empire,  p.  96."  The  whole  annual  produce  is  esti- 
mated at  about  430  millions,  and  the  products  of  agriculture  at 
about  216  millions. 


26  Thomas  Eobekt  Malthus 

proportion  to  the  price  of  produce,  which  is  a  very  rare  case, 
and  can  only  happen  when  the  demand  for  labour  precedes, 
or  is  at  least  quite  contemporary  with  the  demand  for  pro- 
dufce;  it  is  so  impossible  that  all  the  other  outgoings  in  which 
capital  is  expended,  should  rise  precisely  in  the  same  propor- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time,  such  as  compositions  for  tithes, 
parish  rates,  taxes,  manure,  and  the  fixed  capital  accumu- 
lated under  the  former  low  prices,  that  a  period  of  some  con- 
tinuance can  scarcely  fail  to  occur,  when  the  difference  be- 
tween the  price  of  produce  and  the  cost  of  production  is 
increased. 

In  some  of  these  cases,  the  increase  in  the  price  of  agri- 
cultural produce,  compared  with  the  cost  of  the  instruments 
of  production,  appears  from  what  has  been  said  to  be  only 
temporary;  and  in  these  instances  it  will  often  give  a  con- 
siderable stimulus  to  cultivation,  by  an  increase  of  agricul- 
tural profits,  without  shewing  itself  much  in  the  shape  of  rent. 
26  It  II  hardly  ever  fails,  however,  to  increase  rent  ultimately. 
The  increased  capital,  which  is  employed  in  consequence  of 
the  opportunity  of  making  great  temporary  profits,  can  sel- 
dom or  ever  be  entirely  removed  from  the  land,  at  the  ex- 
piration of  the  current  leases;  and,  on  the  renewal  of  these 
leases,  the  landlord  feels  the  benefit  of  it  in  the  increase  of 
his  rents. 

Whenever  then,  by  the  operation  of  the  four  causes  above 
mentioned,  the  difference  between  the  price  of  produce  and 
the  cost  of  the  instruments  of  production  increases,  the  rents 
of  land  will  rise. 

It  is,  however,  not  necessary  that  all  these  four  causes 
should  operate  at  the  same  time ;  it  is  only  necessary  that  the 
difference  here  mentioned  should  increase.  If,  for  instance, 
the  price  of  produce  were  to  rise,  while  the  wages  of  labour, 
and  the  price  of  the  other  branches  of  capital  did  not  rise 
in  proportion,  and  at  the  same  time  improved  modes  of  agri- 
culture were  coming  into  general  use,  it  is  evident  that  this 
difference  might  be  increased,  although  the  profits  of  agri- 


/f 


I 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Eent  27 

cultural  stock  were  not  only  undiminished,  but  were  to  rise 
decidedly  higher. 

Of  the  great  additional  quantity  of  capital  employed  upon 
the  land  in  this  country,  during  ||  the  last  twenty  years,  by  27 
far  the  greater  part  is  supposed  to  have  been  generated  on 
the  soil,  and  not  to  have  been  brought  from  commerce  or 
manufactures."  And  it  was  unquestionably  the  high  profits 
of  agricultural  stock,  occasioned  by  improvements  in  the 
modes  of  agriculture,  and  by  the  constant  rise  of  prices,  fol- 
lowed only  slowly  by  a  proportionate  rise  in  the  different 
branches  of  capital,  that  afforded  the  means  of  so  rapid  and 
so  advantageous  an  accumulation. 

In  this  case  cultivation  has  been  extended,  and  rents  have 
risen,  although  one  of  the  instruments  of  production,  capital, 
has  been  dearer. 

In  the  same  manner  a  fall  of  profits  and  improvements  in 
agriculture,  or  even  one  of  them  separately,  might  raise 
rents,  notwithstanding  a  rise  of  wages. 

(       It  may  be  laid  down  then  as  a  general  truth,  that  rents 
naturally  rise  as  the  difference  between  the  price  of  produce 
and  the  cost  of  the  instruments  of  production  increases. 
It  is  further  evident,  that  no  fresh  land  can  be  taken  into 

^    cultivation  till  rents  have  risen,  or  would  allow  of  a  rise  upon 
what  is  already  cultivated. 

Land  of  an  inferior  quality  requires  a  great  quantity  of 
capital  to  make  it  yield  a  given  ||  produce ;  and,  if  the  actual  38 
price  of  this  produce  be  not  such  as  fully  to  compensate  the 
cost  of  production,  including  the  existing  rate  of  profits, 
the  land  must  remain  uncultivated.  It  matters  not  whether 
this  compensation  is  effected  by  an  increase  in  the  money 
price  of  raw  produce,  without  a  proportionate  increase  in 
the  money  price  of  the  instruments  of  production,  or  by  a 
decrease  in  the  price  of  the  instruments  of  production,  with- 
out a  proportionate  decrease  in  the  pricfe  of  produce.  What 
is  absolutely  necessary,  is  a  greater  relative  cheapness  of  the 

^  instruments  of  production,  to  make  up  for  the  quantity  of 
them  required  to  obtain  a  given  produce  from  poor  land. 


28  Thomas  Robert  Malthus 

But  whenever,  by  the  operation  of  one  or  more  of  the 
causes  before  mentioiled,  the  instruments  of  production  be- 
come cheaper,  and  the  difference  between  the  price  of  pro- 
duce and  the  expenses  of  cultivation  increases,  rents,  naturally 
rise.  It  follows  therefore  as  a  direct  and  necessary  conse- 
quence, that  it  can  never  answer  to  take  fresh  land  of  a 
\  poorer  quality  into  cultivation,  till  rents  have  risen  or  would 
allow  of  a  rise,  on  what  is  already  cultivated. 

It  is  equally  true,  that  without  the  same  tendency  to  a 
rise  of  rents,  occasioned  by  the  operation  of  the  same  causes, 

29  it  cannot  answer  ||  to  lay  out  fresh  capital  in  the  improve- 
ment of  old  land, — at  least  upon  the  supposition,  that  each 
farm  is  already  furnished  with  as  much  capital  as  can  be 
laid  out  to  advantage,  according  to  the  actual  rate  of  profits. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  state  this  proposition  to  make 
its  truth  appear.  It  certainly  may  happen,  and  I  fear  it 
happens  frequently,  that  farmers  are  not  provided  with 
all  the  capital  which  could  be  employed  upon  their  farms, 
at  the  actual  rate  of  agricultural  profits.  But  supposing 
they  are  so  provided,  it  implies  distinctly,  that  more  could 
not  be  applied  without  loss,  till,  by  the  operation  of  one  or 
more  of  the  causes  above  enumerated,  rents  had  tended  to 
rise. 

It  appears  then,  that  the  power  of  extending  cultivation 
and  increasing  produce,  both  by  the  cultivation  of  fresh 
land  and  the  improvement  of  the  old,  depends  entirely  upon 
the  existence  of  such  prices,  compared  with  the  expense  of 
production,  as  would  raise  rents  in  the  actual  state  of  culti- 
vation. 

But  though  cultivation  cannot  be  extended,  and  the  pro- 
duce of  the  country  increased,  but  in  such  a  state  of  things 
as  would  allow  of  a  rise  of  rents,  yet  it  is  of  importance  to 
remark,  that  this  rise  of  rents  will  be  by  no  means  in  pro- 

30  portion  to  the  extension  of  cultivation,  or  ||  the  increase  of 
produce.  Every  relative  fall  in  the  price  of  the  instruments 
of  production,  may  allow  of  the  employment  of  a  considerable 
quantity  of  additional  capital;  and  when  either  new  land  is 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Rent  29 

taken  into  cultivation,  or  the  old  improved,  the  increase  of 
produce  may  be  considerable,  though  the  increase  of  rents 
be  trifling.  We  see,  in  consequence,  that  in  the  progress 
of  a  country  towards  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  the  quantity 
of  capital  employed  upon  the  land,  and  the  quantity  of 
produce  yielded  by  it,  bears  a  constantly  increasing  pro- 
portion to  the  amount  of  rents,  unless  counterbalanced  by 
extraordinary  improvements  in  the  modes  of  cultivation.* 

x^ccording  to  the  returns  lately  made  to  the  Board  of 
Agriculture,  the  average  proportion  which  rent  bears  to  the 
value  of  the  whole  ||  produce,  seems  not  to  exceed  one  fifth;  f  31 
whereas  formerly,  when  there  was  less  capital  employed,  and 
less  value  produced,  the  proportion  amounted  to  one  fourth, 
one  third,  or  even  two  fifths.  Still,  however,  the  numerical 
difference  between  the  price  of  produce  and  the  expenses  of 
cultivation,  increases  with  the  progress  of  improvement;  and 
though  the  landlord  has  a  less  share  of  the  whole  produce,  yet 
this  less  share,  from  the  very  great  increase  of  the  produce, 
yields  a  larger  quantity,  and  gives  him  a  greater  conmiand  of 
com  and  labour.  If  the  produce  of  land  be  represented  by  the 
number  six,  and  the  landlord  has  one-fourth  of  it,  his  share 
will  be  represented  by  one  and  a  half.  If  the  produce  of  land 
be  as  ten,  and  the  landlord  has  one-fifth  of  it,  his  share  will  be 
represented  by  two.  In  the  latter  case,  therefore,  though 
the  proportion  of  the  landlord's  share  to  the  whole  produce 

•  To  the  honour  of  Scotch  cultivators,  it  should  be  observed, 
that  they  have  applied  their  capitals  so  very  skilfully  and  eco- 
nomically, that  at  the  same  time  that  they  have  prodigiously 
increased  the  produce,  they  have  increased  the  landlord's  pro- 
portion of  it.  The  difference  between  the  landlord's  share  of  the 
produce  in  Scotland  and  in  England  is  quite  extraordinary — much 
greater  than  can  be  accounted  for,  either  by  the  natural  soil  or 
the  absence  of  tithes  and  poor "  rates. — See  Sir  John  Sinclair's 
valuable  Account  of  the  Husbandry  of  Scotland;"  and  the  General 
Report"  not  long  since  published — works  replete  with  the  most 
useful  and  interesting  information  on  agricultural  subjects. 

t  See  Evidence  before  the  House  of  Lords,  given  in  by  Arthur 
Young,     p.  66." 


30  Thomas  Egbert  Malthus 

is  greatly  diminished,  his  real  rent,  independently  of  nominal 
price,  will  be  increased  in  the  proportion  of  from  three  to 
fo\ir.  And  in  general,  in  all  cases  of  increasing  produce,  if 
the  landlord's  share  of  this  produce  do  not  diminish  in  the 

33  same  proportion,  which  though  it  often  ||  happens  during  the 
currency  of  leases,  rarely  or  never  happens  on  the  renewal 
of  them,  the  real  rents  of  land  must  rise. 

We  see  then,  that  a  progressive  rise  of  rents  seems  to  be 
necessarily  connected  with  the  progressive  cultivation  of 
new  land,  and  the  progressive  improvement  of  the  old:  and 
that  this  rise  is  the  natural  and  necessary  consequence  of 
the  operation  of  four  causes,  which  are  the  most  certain  in- 
dications of  increasing  prosperity  and  wealth — namely,  the 
accumulation  of  capital,  the  increase  of  population,  improve- 
ments in  agriculture,  and  the  high  price  of  raw  produce, 
occasioned  by  the  extension  of  our  manufactures  and  com- 
merce. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  will  appear,  that  a  fall  of  rents  is 

as  necessarily  connected  with  the  throwing  of  inferior  land 

,    out  of  cultivation,  and  the  continued  deterioration  of  the 

|j  land  of  a  superior  quality;  and  that  it  is  the  natural  and 
necessary  consequence  of  causes,  which  are  the  certain  in- 
dications of  poverty  and  decline,  namely,  diminished  capital, 
diminished  population,  a  bad  system  of  cultivation,  and  the 
low  price  of  raw  produce. 

If  it  be  true,  that  cultivation  cannot  be  extended  but  under 
such  a  state  of  prices,  compared  with  the  expenses  of  produc- 

33  tion,  as  will  allow  of  an  increase  of  rents,  it  follows  natu-  || 
rally  that  under  such  a  state  of  relative  prices  as  will  occa- 
sion a  fall  of  rents,  cultivation  must  decline.  If  the  insfru- 
ments  of  production  become  dearer,  compared  with  the  price 
of  produce,  it  is  a  certain  sign  that  they  are  relatively  scarce ; 
y,  and  in  all  those  cases  where  a  large  quantity  of  them  is  re- 
quired, as  in  the  cultivation  of  poor  land,  the  means  of  pro- 
curing them  will  be  deficient,  and  the  land  will  be  thrown 
out  of  employment. 

It  appeared,  that  in  the  progress  of  cultivation  and  of 


The  Nature  and  Progress  or  Eent  31 

increasing  rents,  it  was  not  necessary  that  all  the  instruments 
of  production  should  fall  in  price  at  the  same  time;  and  that 
the  difference  between  the  price  of  produce  and  the  expense 
of  cultivation  might  increase,  although  either  the  profits  of 
stock  or  the  wages  of  labour  might  be  higher,  instead  of 
lower. 

In  the  same  manner,  when  the  produce  of  a  country  is 
declining,  and  rents  are  falling,  it  is  not  necessary  that  all 
the  instruments  of  production  should  be  dearer.  In  a  de- 
clining or  stationary  country,  one  most  important  instrument 
of  production  is  always  cheap,  namely,  labour;  but  this  cheap- 
ness of  labour  does  not  counterbalance  the  disadvantages 
arising  from  the  deamess  of  capital ;  a  bad  system  of  culture ; 
and,  above  all,  a  fall  in  the  price  of  raw  produce,  greater  than 
in  the  price  of  the  other  ||  branches  of  expenditure,  which,  34 
in  addition  to  labour,  are  necessary  to  cultivation. 

It  has  appeared  also,  that  in  the  progress  of  cultivation 
and  of  increasing  rents,  rent,  though  greater  in  positive 
amount,  bears  a  less,  and  lesser  proportion  to  the  quantity  of 
capital  employed  upon  the  land,  and  the  quantity  of  produce 
derived  from  it.  According  to  the  same  principle,  when  pro- 
duce diminishes  and  rents  fall,  though  the  amount  of  rent 
will  always  be  less,  the  proportion  which  it  bears  to  capital 
and  produce  will  always  be  greater.  And,  as  in  the  former 
case,  the  diminished  proportion  of  rent  was  owing  to  the 
necessity  of  yearly  taking  fresh  land  of  an  inferior  quality 
into  cultivation,  and  proceeding  in  the  improvement  of  old 
land,  when  it  would  return  only  the  common  profits  of  stock, 
with  little  or  no  rent;  so,  in  the  latter  case,  the  high  propor- 
tion of  rent  is  owing  to  the  impossibility  of  obtaining  pro- 
duce, whenever  a  great  expenditure  is  required,  and  the 
necessity  of  employing  the  reduced  capital  of  the  country 
in  the  exclusive  cultivation  of  its  richest  lands. 

In  proportion,  therefore,  as  the  relative  state  of  prices  is 
such  as  to  occasion  a  progressive  fall  of  rents,  more  and  more 
lands  will  be  gradually  thrown  out  of  cultivation,  the  re- 
mainder will  be  worse  cultivated,  and  the  diminution  of  ||   35 


32  Thomas  Egbert  Malthus 

produce  will  proceed  still  faster  than  the  diminution  of 
rents. 

If  the  doctrine  here  laid  down,  respecting  the  laws  which 
govern  the  rise  and  fall  of  rents,  be  near  the  truth,  the 
doctrine  which  maintains  that,  if  the  produce  of  agriculture 
were  sold  at  such  a  price  as  to  yield  less  neat  surplus,  agri- 
culture would  be  equally  productive  to  the  general  stock, 
must  be  very  far  from  the  truth. 

With  regard  to  my  own  conviction,  indeed,  I  feel  no  sort 
of  doubt  that  if,  under  the  impression  that  the  high  price 
of  raw  produce,  which  occasions  rent,  is  as  injurious  to  the 
consumer  as  it  is  advantageous  to  the  landlord,  a  rich  and 
improved  nation  were  determined  by  law,  to  lower  the  price 
of  produce,  till  no  surplus  in  the  shape  of  rent  any  where 
remained;  it  would  inevitably  throw  not  only  all  the  poor 
land,  but  all,  except  the  very  best  land,  out  of  cultivation, 
and  probably  reduce  its  produce  and  population  to  less  than 
one-tenth  of  their  former  amount. 

From  the  preceding  account  of  the  progress  of  rent,  it 
follows,  that  the  actual  state  of  the  natural  rent  of  land  is 
necessary  to  the  actual  produce;  and  that  the  price  of  pro- 
duce, in  every  progressive  country,  must  be  just  about  equal 
36  to  the  cost  of  production  on  land  of  the  I  poorest  quality 
actually  in  use;  or  to  the  cost  of  raising  additional  produce 
on  old  land,  which  yields  only  the  usual  returns  of  agricul- 
tural stock  with  little  or  no  rent. 

It  is  quite  obvious  that  the  price  cannot  be  less;  or  such 
land  would  not  be  cultivated,  nor  such  capital  employed. 
Nor  can  it  ever  much  exceed  this  price,  because  the  poor 
land  progressively  taken  into  cultivation,  yields  at  first  little 
or  no  rent;  and  because  it  will  always  answer  to  any  farmer 
who  can  command  capital,  to  lay  it  out  on  his  land,  if  the 
additional  produce  resulting  from  it  will  fully  repay  the 
profits  of  his  stock,  although  it  yields  nothing  to  his  land- 
lord. 

It  follows  then,  that  the  price  of  raw  produce,  in  refer- 
ence to  the  ivhole  quantity  raised,  is  sold  at  the  natural  or 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Eent  33 

necessary  price,  that  is,  at  the  price  necessary  to  obtain  the 
actual  amount  of  produce,  although  by  far  the  largest  part 
is  sold  at  a  price  very  much  above  that  which  is  necessary  to 
its  production,  owing  to  this  part  being  produced  at  less  ex- 
pense, while  its  exchangeable  value  remains  undiminished. 

The  difference  between  the  price  of  com  and  the  price 
of  manufactures,  with  regard  to  natural  or  necessary  price, 
is  this ;  that  if  the  price  of  any  manufacture  were  essentially 
depressed,  the  whole  manufacture  would  be  ||  entirely  de-  37 
stroyed;  whereas,  if  the  price  of  corn  were  essentially  de- 
pressed, the  quantity  of  it  only  would  be  diminished.  There 
would  be  some  machinery  in  the  country  still  capable  of 
sending  the  commodity  to  market  at  the  reduced  price. 

The  earth  has  been  sometimes  compared  to  a  vast  ma- 
chine, presented  by  nature  to  man  for  the  production  of  food 
and  raw  materials;  but,  to  make  the  resemblance  more  just, 
as  far  as  they  admit  of  comparison,  we  should  consider  the 
soil  as  a  present  to  man  of  a  great  number  of  machines,  all 
susceptible  of  continued  improvement  by  the  application  of 
capital  to  them,  but  yet  of  very  different  original  qualities 
and  powers. 

This  great  inequality  in  the  powers  of  the  machinery  em- 
ployed in  procuring  raw  produce,  forms  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable features  which  distinguishes  the  machinery  of  the 
land  from  the  machinery  employed  in  manufactures. 

When  a  machine  in  manufactures  is  invented,  which  will 
produce  more  finished  work  with  less  labour  and  capital 
than  before,  if  there  be  no  patent,  or  as  soon  as  the  patent 
is  over,  a  sufficient  number  of  such  machines  may  be  made  to 
supply  the  whole  demand,  and  to  supersede  entirely  the 
use  of  all  the  old  ma-  ||  chinery.  The  natural  consequence  38 
is,  that  the  price  is  reduced  to  the  price  of  production  from 
the  best  machinery,  and  if  the  price  were  to  be  depressed 
lower,  the  whole  of  the  commodity  would  be  withdrawn  from 
the  market. 

The  machines  which  produce  corn  and  raw  materials  on 
the   contrary,  are  the   gifts  of  nature,   not  the  works   of 


34  Thomas  Egbert  Malthus 

man;  and  we  find,  by  experience,  that  these  gifts  have  very 
different  qualities  and  powers.  The  most  fertile  lands  of  a 
coimtry,  those  which,  like  the  best  machinery  in  manufac- 
tures, yield  the  greatest  products  with  the  least  labour  and  cap- 
ital, are  never  found  sufficient  to  supply  the  effective  de- 
mand of  an  increasing  population.  The  price  of  raw  pro- 
duce, therefore,  naturally  rises  tUl  it  becomes  sufficiently 
high  to  pay  the  cost  of  raising  it  with  inferior  machines,  and 
by  a  more  expensive  process;  and,  as  there  cannot  be  two 
prices  for  corn  of  the  same  quality,  all  the  other  machines, 
the  working  of  which  requires  less  capital  compared  with  the 
produce,  must  yield  rents  in  proportion  to  their  goodness. 

Every  extensive  country  may  thus  be  considered  as  possess- 
ing a  gradation  of  machines  for  the  production  of  corn  and 
raw  materials,  including  in  this  gradation  not  only  all  the 
various  qualities  of  poor  land,  of  which  every  large  territory 
89  has  generally  an  abundance,  ||  but  the  inferior  machinery 
which  may  be  said  to  be  employed  when  good  land  is  further 
and  further  forced  for  additional  produce.  As  the  price  of 
raw  produce  continues  to  rise,  these  inferior  machines  are 
successively  called  into  action;  and,  as  the  price  of  raw  pro- 
duce continues  to  fall,  they  are  successively  thrown  out  of 
action.  The  illustration  here  used  serves  to  shew  at  once  the 
necessity  of  the  actual  price  of  corn  to  the  actual  produce, 
.and  the  different  effect  which  would  attend  a  great  reduction 
in  the  price  of  any  particular  manufacture,  and  a  great  re- 
duction in  the  price  of  raw  produce. 

I  hope  to  be  excused  for  dwelling  a  little,  and  presenting 
to  the  reader  in  various  forms  the  doctrine,  that  com  in  ref- 
erence to  the  quantity  actually  produced  is  sold  at  its  neces- 
sary price  like  manufactures,  because  I  consider  it  as  a 
truth  of  the  highest  importance,  which  has  been  entirely 
overlooked  by  the  Economists,  by  Adam  Smith,  and  all  those 
writers  who  have  represented  raw  produce  as  selling  always 
at  a  monopoly  price. 

Adam  Smith  has  very  clearly  explained  in  what  manner 
the  progress  of  wealth  and  improvement  tends  to  raise  the 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Eent  35 

price  of  cattle,  poultry,  the  materials  of  clothiag  and  lodg- 
ing, the  most  useful  minerals,  &c.  &c.  compared  ||  with  corn ;  "  40 
but  he  has  not  entered  into  the  explanation  of  the  natural 
causes  which  tend  to  determine  the  price  of  corn.  He  has 
left  the  reader,  indeed,  to  conclude,  that  he  considers  the 
price  of  corn  as  determined  only  by  the  state  of  the  mines 
which  at  the  time  supply  the  circulating  medium  of  the  com- 
mercial world.  But  this  is  a  cause  obviously  inadequate  to 
account  for  the  actual  differences  in  the  price  of  grain, 
observable  in  countries  at  no  great  distance  from  each  other, 
and  at  nearly  the  same  distance  from  the  mines. 

I  entirely  agree  with  him,  that  it  is  of  great  use  to  en- 
quire into  the  causes  of  high  price;  as,  from  the  result  of 
such  inquiry,  it  may  turn  out,  that  the  very  circumstance 
of  which  we  complain,  may  be  the  necessary  consequence 
and  the  most  certain  sign  of  increasing  wealth  and  pros- 
perity. But,  of  all  inquiries  of  this  kind,  none  surely  can  be 
so  important,  or  so  generally  interesting,  as  an  inquiry  into 
the  causes  which  affect  the  price  of  corn,  and  which  occasion 
the  differences  in  this  price,  so  observable  in  different  coun- 
tries. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  stating  that,  independently  of 
irregularities  in  the  currency  of  a  country,*  and  other  tem- 
porary and  accidental  ||  circumstances,  the  cause  of  the  high  41 
comparative  money  price  of  com  is  its  high  compar- 
ative real  price,  or  the  greater  quantity  of  capital  and  labour 
which  must  be  employed  to  produce  it:  and  that  the  reason 
why  the  real  price  of  corn  is  higher  and  continually  rising 
in  countries  which  are  already  rich,  and  still  advancing  in 
prosperity  and  population,  io  to  be  found  in  the  necessity  of 
resorting  constantly  to  poorer  land — to  machines  which  re- 

*  In  all  our  discussions  we  should  endeavour,  as  well  as  we  can, 
to  separate  that  part  of  high  price,  which  arises  from  excess  of 
currency,  from  that  part,  which  is  natural,  and  arises  from  per- 
manent causes.  In  the  whole  course  of  this  argument,  it  is  par- 
ticularly necessary  to  do  this. 


36  Thomas  Egbert  Malthus 

quire  a  greater  expenditure  to  work  them — and  which  conse- 
quently occasion  each  fresh  addition  to  the  raw  produce  of 
the  country  to  be  purchased  at  a  greater  cost — in  short,  it 
is  to  be  found  in  the  important  truth  that  com,  in  a  pro- 
gressive country,  is  sold  at  the  price  necessary  to  yield  the 
actual  supply;  and  that,  as  this  supply  becomes  more  and 

43  more  difficult,  the  price  rises  in  proportion.*  || 

The  price  of  corn,  as  determined  by  these  causes,  will  of 
course  be  greatly  modified  by  other  circumstances;  by  direct 
and  indirect  taxation;  by  improvements  in  the  modes  of 
cultivation;  by  the  saving  of  labour  on  the  land;  and  par- 
ticulariy  by  the  importations  of  foreign  corn.  The  latter 
cause,  indeed,  may  do  away,  in  a  considerable  degree,  the 
usual  effects  of  great  wealth  on  the  price  of  corn;  and  this 
wealth  will  then  shew  itself  in  a  different  form. 

Let  us  suppose  seven  or  eight  large  countries  not  very 
distant  from  each  other,  and  not  very  differently  situated 
with  regard  to  the  mines.  Let  us  suppose  further,  that 
neither  their  soils  nor  their  skill  in  agriculture  are  essentially 
unlike;  that  their  currencies  are  in  a  natural  state;  their 
taxes  nothing;  and  that  every  trade  is  free,  except  the  trade 

43  in  com.  ||  Let  us  now  suppose  one  of  them  very  greatly 
to  increase  in  capital  and  manufacturing  skill  above  the  rest, 
and  to  become  in  consequence  much  more  rich  and  populous. 
I  should  say,  that  this  great  comparative  increase  of  riches 

•  It  will  be  observed,  tbat  I  have  said  in  a  progressive  country; 
that  is,  in  a  country  which  requires  yearly  the  employment  of  a 
greater  capital  on  the  land,  to  support  an  increasing  population. 
If  there  were  no  question  about  fresh  capital,  or  an  increase  of 
people,  and  all  the  land  were  good,  it  would  not  then  be  true  that 
corn  must  be  sold  at  its  necessary  price.  The  actual  price  might 
be  diminished;  and  if  the  rents  of  land  were  diminished  in  propor- 
tion, the  cultivation  might  go  on  as  before,  and  the  same  quan- 
tity be  produced.  It  very  rarely  happens,  however,  that  all  the 
lands  of  a  country  actually  occupied  are  good,  and  yield  a  good 
neat  rent.  And  in  all  cases,  a  fall  of  prices  must  destroy  agri- 
cultural capital  during  the  currency  of  leases;  and  on  their 
renewal  there  would  not  be  the  same  power  of  production. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Kent  37 

could  not  possibly  take  place,  without  a  great  comparative 
advance  in  the  price  of  raw  produce;  and  that  such  advance 
of  price  would,  under  the  circumstances  supposed-,  be  the 
natural  sign  and  absolutely  necessary  consequence,  of  the 
increased  wealth  and  population  of  the  country  in  question. 

Let  us  now  suppose  the  same  countries  to  have  the  most 
perfect  freedom  of  intercourse  in  com,  and  the  expenses  of 
freight,  &c.  to  be  quite  inconsiderable.  And  let  us  still  sup- 
pose one  of  them  to  increase  very  greatly  above  the  rest,  in 
manufacturing  capital  and  skill,  in  wealth  and  population. 
I  should  then  say,  that  as  the  importation  of  corn  would  pre- 
vent any  great  difference  in  the  price  of  raw  produce,  it 
would  prevent  any  great  difference  in  the  quantity  of  capital 
laid  out  upon  the  land,  and  the  quantity  of  com  obtained 
from  it ;  that,  consequently,  the  great  increase  of  wealth  could 
not  take  place  without  a  great  dependence  on  the  other 
nations  for  com;  and  that  this  dependence,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances supposed,  would  be  the  natural  sign,  and  abso- 
lutely II  necessary  consequence  of  the  increased  wealth  and  44 
population  of  the  country  in  question. 

These  I  consider  as  the  two  alternatives  necessarily  be- 
longing to  a  great  comparative  increase  of  wealth;  and  the 
supposition  here  made  will,  with  proper  restrictions,  apply 
to  the  state  of  Europe. 

In  Europe,  the  expenses  attending  the  carriage  of  corn 
are  often  considerable.  They  form  a  natural  barrier  to  im- 
portation; and  even  the  country  which  habitually  depends 
upon  foreign  com,  must  have  the  price  of  its  raw  produce 
considerably  higher  than  the  general  level.  Practically,  also, 
the  prices  of  raw  produce,  in  the  different  countries  of 
Europe,  will  be.  variously  modified  by  very  different  soils, 
very  different  degrees  of  taxation,  and  very  different  degrees 
of  improvement  in  the  science  of  agricultiure.  Heavy  taxa- 
tion, and  a  poor  soil,  may  occasion  a  high  comparative  price 
of  raw  produce,  or  a  considerable  dependance  on  other 
countries,  without  great  wealth  and  population;  while  great 
improvements  in  agriculture  and  a  good  soil  may  keep  the 


^67418 


38  Thomas  Eobeet  Malthus 

price  of  produce  low,  and  the  country  independent  of  foreign 
com,  in  spite  of  considerable  wealth.  But  the  principles 
laid  down  are  the  general  principles  on  the  subject;  and  in 
applying  them  to  any  particular  case,  the  particular  circum- 

45  stances  of  ||  such  case  must  always  be  taken  into  the  con- 
sideration. 

With  regard  to  improvements  in  agriculture,  which  in 
similar  soils  is  the  great  cause  which  retards  the  advance 
of  price  compared  with  the  advance  of  produce;  although 
they  are  sometimes  very  powerful,  they  are  rarely  found  suf- 
ficient to  balance  the  necessity  of  applying  to  poorer  land, 
or  inferior  machines.  In  this  respect,  raw  produce  is  es- 
sentially different  from  manufactures. 

The  real  price  of  manufactures,  the  quantity  of  labour 
and  capital  necessary  to  produce  a  given  quantity  of  them, 
is  almost  constantly  diminishing;  while  the  quantity  of 
labour  and  capital,  necessary  to  procure  the  last  addition 
that  has  been  made  to  the  raw  produce  of  a  rich  and  advanc- 
ing country,  is  almost  constantly  increasing.  We  see  in 
consequence,  that  in  spite  of  continued  improvements  in 
agriculture,  the  money  price  of  corn  is  cceteris  paribus  the 
highest  in  the  richest  countries,  while  in  spite  of  this  high 
price  of  com,  and  consequent  high  price  of  labour,  the  money 
price  of  manufactures  still  continues  lower  than  in  poorer 
countries. 

I  cannot  then  agree  with  Adam  Smith,"  in  thinking  that 
the  low  value  of  gold  and  silver  is  no  proof  of  the  wealth  and 

46  flourishing  state  ||  of  the  country,  where  it  takes  place. 
Nothing  of  course  can  be  inferred  from  it,  taken  absolutely, 
except  the  abundance  of  the  mines;  but  taken  relatively,  or 
in  comparison  with  the  state  of  other  countries,  much  may 
be  inferred  from  it.  If  we  are  to  measure  the  value  of  the 
precious  metals  in  different  countries,  and  at  different 
periods  in  the  same  country,  by  the  price  of  corn  and  labour, 
which  appears  to  me  to  be  the  nearest  practical  approxima- 
tion that  can  be  adopted  (and  in  fact  com  is  the  measure 
used  by  Adam  Smith  himself),  it  appears  to  me  to  follow. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Rent  39 

that  in  countries  which  have  a  frequent  commercial  inter- 
course with  each  other,  which  are  nearly  at  the  same  distance 
from  the  mines,  and  are  not  essentially  different  in  soil;  there 
is  no  more  certain  sign,  or  more  necessary  consequence  of 
superiority  of  wealth,  than  the  low  value  of  the  precious 
metals,  or  the  high  price  of  raw  produce.*  ||  47 

It  is  of  importance  to  ascertain  this  point;  that  we  may 
•not  complain  of  one  of  the  most  certain  proofs  of  the  pros- 
perous condition  of  a  country. 

It  is  not  of  course  meant  to  be  asserted,  that  the  high 
price  of  raw  produce  is,  separately  taken,  advantageous  to 
the  consumer;  but  that  it  is  the  necessary  concomitant  of 
superior  and  increasing  wealth,  and  that  one  of  them  cannot 
be  had  without  the  other,  f 

With  regard  to  the  labouring  classes  of  society,  whose  in- 
terests as  consumers  may  be  supposed  to  be  most  nearly 
concerned,  it  is  a  very  short-sighted  view  of  the  subject, 
which  contemplates,  with  alarm,  the  high  price  of  corn  as 

•  This  conclusion  may  appear  to  contradict  the  doctrine  of  the 
level  of  the  precious  metals.  And  so  it  does,  if  by  level  be  meant 
level  of  value  estimated  in  the  usual  way.  I  consider  the  doc- 
trine, indeed,  as  quite  unsupported  by  facts,  and  the  comparison 
of  the  precious  metals  to  water  perfectly  inaccurate.  The  pre- 
cious metals  are  always  tending  to  a  state  of  rest,  or  such  a  state 
of  things  as  to  make  their  movement  unnecessary.  But  when 
this  state  of  rest  has  been  nearly  attained,  and  the  exchanges  of 
all  countries  are  nearly  at  par,  the  value  of  the  precious  metals 
in  different  countries,  estimated  in  corn  and  labour,  or  the 
mass  of  commodities,  is  very  far  indeed  from  being  the  same. 
To  be  convinced  of  this,  it  is  only  necessary  to  look  at  England, 
France,  Poland,  Russia,  and  India,  when  the  exchanges  are  at 
par.  That  Adam  Smith,  who  proposes  labour  as  the  true  measure 
of  value  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  could  look  around  him, 
and  yet  say  that  the  precious  metals  were  always  the  highest  in 
value  in  the  richest  countries,  has  always  appeared  to  me  most 
unlike  his  usual  attention  to  found  his  theories  on  facts. 

t  Even  upon  the  system  of  importation,  in  the  actual  state  and 
situation  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  higher  prices  must  accom- 
pany superior  and  increasing  wealth. 


40  Thomas  Egbert  Malthus 

certainly  iBJurious  to  them.     The  essentials  to  their  well 

48  heing  are  their  own  prudential  ha-  ||  bits,  and  the  increasing 
demand  for  labour.  And  I  do  not "  scruple  distinctly  to  affirm, 
that  under  similar  habits,  and  a  similar  demand  for  labour, 
the  high  price  of  corn,  when  it  has  had  time  to  produce  its 
natural  effects,  so  far  from  being  a  disadvantage  to  them, 
is  a  positive  and  unquestionable  advantage.  To  supply  the 
same  demand  for  labour,  the  necessary  price  of  production 
must  be  paid,  and  they  must  be  able  to  command  the  same 
quantities  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  whether  they  are  high 

49  or  low  in  price.*     But  if  they  are  able  to  com-  ||  mand  the 

*  We  must  not  be  so  far  deceived  by  the  evidence  before  Parlia- 
ment, relating  to  the  want  of  connexion  between  the  prices  of 
corn  and  of  labour,  as  to  suppose  that  they  are  really  independent 
of  each  other.  The  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life  is,  in  fact, 
the  cost  of  producing  labour.  The  supply  cannot  proceed,  if  it 
be  not  paid;  and  though  there  will  always  be  a  little  latitude, 
owing  to  some  variations  of  industry  and  habits,  and  the  distance 
of  time  between  the  encouragement  to  population  and  the  period 
of  the  results  appearing  in  the  markets:  yet  it  is  a  still  greater 
error,  to  suppose  the  price  of  labour  unconnected  with  the  price 
of  corn,  than  to  suppose  that  the  price  of  corn  immediately  and 
completely  regulates  it.  Corn  and  labour  rarely  march  quite 
abreast;  but  there  is  an  obvious  limit,  beyond  which  they  cannot 
be  separated.  With  regard  to  the  unusual  exertions  made  by 
the  labouring  classes  in  periods  of  deamess,  which  produce  the 
fall  of  wages  noticed  in  the  evidence,  they  are  most  meritorious 
in  the  individuals,  and  certainly  favour  the  growth  of  capital. 
But  no  man  of  humanity  could  wish  to  see  them  constant  and 
unremitted.  They  are  most  admirable  as  a  temporary  relief; 
but  if  they  were  constantly  in  action,  effects  of  a  similar  kind 
would  result  from  them,  as  from  the  population  of  a  country 
being  pushed  to  the  very  extreme  limits  of  its  food.  There 
would  be  no  resources  in  a  scarcity.  I  own  I  do  not  see,  with 
pleasure,  the  great  extension  of  the  practice  of  task  work.  To 
work  really  hard  during  twelve  or  fourteen  hours  in  the  day,  for 
any  length  of  time,  is  too  much  for  a  human  being.  Some  inter- 
vals of  ease  are  necessary  to  health  and  happiness:  and  the 
occasional  abuse  of  such  intervals  is  no  valid  argument  against 
their  use. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Kent  41 

same  quantity  of  necessaries,  and  receive  a  money  price  for 
their  labour,  proportioned  to  their  advanced  price,  there  is 
no  doubt  that,  with  regard  to  all  the  objects  of  convenience 
and  comfort,  which  do  not  rise  in  proportion  to  com,  (and 
there  are  many  such  consumed  by  the  poor)  their  condition 
will  be  most  decidedly  improved. 

The  reader  will  observe  in  what  manner  I  have  guarded 
the  proposition.  I  am  well  aware,  and  indeed  have  myself 
stated  in  another  place,  that  the  price  of  provisions  often 
rises,  without  a  proportionate  rise  of  labour:  but  this  can- 
not possibly  happen  for  any  length  of  time,  if  the  demand 
for  labour  continues  increasing  at  the  same  rate,  and  the 
habits  of  the  labourer  are  not  altered,  either  with  regard  to  |1  50 
prudence,  or  the  quantity  of  work  which  he  is  disposed  to 
perform. 

The  peculiar  evil  to  be  apprehended  is,  that  the  high 
money  price  of  labour  may  diminish  the  demand  for  it ;  and 
that  it  has  this  tendency  will  be  readily  allowed,  particularly 
as  it  tends  to  increase  the  prices  of  exportable  commodities. 
But  repeated  experience  has  shewn  us  that  such  tendencies 
are  continually  counter  balanced,  and  more  than  counter 
balanced  by  other  circumstances.  And  we  have  witnessed, 
in  our  own  country,  a  greater  and  more  rapid  extension  of 
foreign  commerce,  than  perhaps  was  ever  known,  under  the 
apparent  disadvantage  of  a  very  great  increase  in  the  price 
of  corn  and  labour,  compared  with  the  prices  of  surround- 
ing countries. 

On  the  other  hand,  instances  every  where  abound  of  a  very 
low  money  price  of  labour,  totally  failing  to  produce  an 
increasing  demand  for  it.  And  among  the  labouring  classes 
of  different  countries,  none  certainly  are  so  wretched  as 
those,  where  the  demand  for  labour,  and  the  population 
are  stationary,  and  yet  the  prices  of  provisions  extremely 
low,  compared  with  manufactures  and  foreign  commodities. 
However  low  they  may  be,  it  is  certain,  that  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, no  more  will  fall  to  the  share  of  the  labourer 
than  is  ne-  ||  cessary  just  to  maintain  the  actual  population;  51 


42  Thomas  Robert  Malthus 

and  his  conditioii  will  be  depressed,  not  only  by  the  stationary 
demand  for  labour,  but  by  the  additional  evil  of  being  able 
to  command  but  a  small  portion  of  manufactures  or  foreign 
commodities,  with  the  little  surplus  which  he  may  possess. 
If,  for  instance,  under  a  stationary  population,  we  suppose, 
that  in  average  families  two-thirds  of  the  wages  estimated 
in  com  are  spent  in  necessary  provisions,  it  will  make  a 
great  difference  in  the  condition  of  the  poor,  whether  the 
remaining  one-third  will  command  few  or  many  convenien- 
cies  and  comforts;  and  almost  invariably,  the  higher  is  the 
price  of  corn,  the  more  indulgences  will  a  given  surplus  pur- 
chase. 

The  high  or  low  price  of  provisions,  therefore,  in  any 
country  is  evidently  a  most  uncertain  criterion  of  the  state 
of  the  poor  in  that  country.  Their  condition  obviously  de- 
pends upon  other  more  powerful  causes;  and  it  is  probably 
true,  that  it  is  as  frequently  good,  or  perhaps  more  frequently 
so,  in  countries  where  com  is  high,  than  where  it  is  low. 

At  the  same  time  it  should  be  observed,  that  the  high  price 
of  com,  occasioned  by  the  difficulty  of  procuring  it,  may  be 
considered  as  the  ultimate  check  to  the  indefinite  progress 
52  of  a  II  country  in  wealth  and  population.  And,  although  the 
actual  progress  of  countries  be  subject  to  great  variations 
in  their  rate  of  movement,  both  from  external  and  internal 
causes,  and  it  would  be  rash  to  say  that  a  state  which  is  well 
peopled  and  proceeding  rather  slowly  at  present,  may  not 
proceed  rapidly  forty  years  hence;  yet  it  must  be  owned, 
that  the  chances  of  a  future  rapid  progress  are  diminished 
by  the  high  prices  of  com  and  labour,  compared  with  other 
countries. 

It  is,  therefore,  of  great  importance,  that  these  prices 
should  be  increased  as  little  as  possible  artificially,  that  is, 
by  taxation.  But  every  tax  which  falls  upon  agricultural 
capital  tends  to  check  the  application  of  such  capital,  to  the 
bringing  of  fresh  land  under  cultivation,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  old.  It  was  shewn,  in  a  former  part  of  this  in- 
quiry, that  before  such  application  of   capital  could  take 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Kent  43 

place,  the  price  of  produce,  compared  with  the  instruments 
of  production,  must  rise  sufficiently  to  pay  the  farmer.  But, 
if  the  increasing  difficulties  to  be  overcome  are  aggravated 
by  taxation,  it  is  necessary,  that  before  the  proposed  improve- 
ments are  undertaken,  the  price  should  rise  sufficiently,  not 
only  to  pay  the  farmer,  but  also  the  government.  And 
every  tax,  which  ||  falls  on  agricultural  capital,  either  pre-  53 
vents  a  proposed  improvement,  or  causes  it  to  be  purchased 
at  a  higher  price. 

When  new  leases  are  let,  these  taxes  are  generally  thrown 
off  upon  the  landlord.  The  farmer  so  makes  his  bargain, 
or  ought  so  to  make  it,  as  to  leave  himself,  after  every 
expense  has  been  paid,  the  average  profits  of  agricultural 
stock  in  the  actual  circumstances  of  the  country,  whatever 
they  may  be,  and  in  whatever  manner  they  may  have  been 
affected  by  taxes,  particularly  by  so  general  a  one  as  the  pro- 
perty tax.  The  farmer,  therefore,  by  paying  a  less  rent  to 
his  landlord  on  the  renewal  of  his  lease,  is  relieved  from  any 
peculiar  pressure,  and  may  go  on  in  the  common  routine  of 
cultivation  with  the  common  profits.  But  his  encourage- 
ment to  lay  out  fresh  capital  in  improvements  is  by  no  means 
restored  by  his  new  bargain.  This  encouragement  must 
depend,  both  with  regard  to  the  farmer  and  the  landlord 
himself,  exclusively  on  the  price  of  produce,  compared  with 
the  price  of  the  instruments  of  production;  and,  if  the  price 
of  these  instruments  have  been  raised  by  taxation,  no  dimin- 
ution of  rent  can  give  relief.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  question,  in 
which  rent  is  not  concerned.  And,  with  a  view  to  progressive 
improvements,  it  may  be  safely  asserted,  that  the  total  ||  abol-  54 
ition  of  rents  would  be  less  effectual  than  the  removal  of 
taxes  which  fall  upon  agricultural  capital. 

I  believe  it  to  be  the  prevailing  opinion,  that  the  great 
expense  of  growing  com  in  this  country  is  almost  exclusively 
owing  to  the  weight  of  taxation.  Of  the  tendency  of  many 
of  our  taxes  to  increase  the  expenses  of  cultivation  and  the 
price  of  com,  I  feel  no  doubt;  but  the  reader  will  see  from 
the  course  of  argument  pursued  in  this  inquiry,  that  I  think 


44  Thomas  Kobert  Malthus 

a  part  of  this  price,  and  perhaps  no  inconsiderable  part,  arises 
from  a  cause  which  lies  deeper,  and  is  in  fact  the  necessary 
result  of  the  great  superiority  of  our  wealth  and  population, 
compared  with  the  quality  of  our  natural  soil  and  the  extent 
of  our  territory. 

This  is  a  cause  which  can  only  be  essentially  mitigated  by 
the  habitual  importation  of  foreign  corn,  and  a  diminished 
cultivation  of  it  at  home.  The  policy  of  such  a  system  has 
been  discussed  in  another  place;  but,  of  course,  every  relief 
from  taxation  must  tend,  under  any  system,  to  make  the 
price  of  com  less  high,  and  importation  less  necessary. 

In  the  progress  of  a  country  towards  a  high  state  of  im- 
provement, the  positive  wealth  of  the  landlord  ought,  upon 
the  principles  which  have  been  laid  down,  gradually  to  in- 
55  crease;  although  ||  his  relative  condition  and  influence  in 
society  will  probably  rather  diminish,  owing  to  the  increasing 
number  and  wealth  of  those  who  live  upon  a  still  more  im- 
portant surplus* — the  profits  of  stock. 

The  progressive  fall,  with  few  exceptions,  in  the  value  of 
the  precious  metals  throughout  Europe ;  the  still  greater  fall, 
which  has  occurred  in  the  richest  countries,  together  with 
the  increase  of  produce  which  has  been  obtained  from  the 
soil,  must  all  conduce  to  make  the  landlord  expect  an  in- 
crease of  rents  on  the  renewal  of  his  leases.  But,  in  re-let- 
ting his  farms,  he  is  liable  to  fall  into  two  errors,  which  are 
almost  equally  prejudicial  to  his  own  interests,  and  to  those 
of  his  country. 

In  the  first  place,  he  may  be  induced,  by  the  immediate 
prospect  of  an  exorbitant  rent,  offered  by  farmers  bidding 
against  each  other,  to  let  his  land  to  a  tenant  without  suffi- 
cient capital  to  cultivate  it  in  the  best  way,  and  make  the 
necessary  improvements  upon   it.     This   is   undoubtedly   a 

*  I  have  hinted  before,  in  a  note,  that  profits  may,  without 
impropriety,  be  called  a  surplus.  But,  whether  surplus  or  not, 
they  are  the  most  important  source  of  wealth,  as  they  are,  beyond 
all  question,  the  main  source  of  accumulation. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Kent  45 

most  short-sighted  policy,  the  bad  effects  of  which  have  been 
strongly  noticed  ||  by  the  most  intelligent  land  surveyors  56 
in  the  evidence  lately  brought  before  Parliament";  and 
have  been  particularly  remarkable  in  Ireland,  where  the 
imprudence  of  the  landlords  in  this  respect,  combined,  per- 
haps, with  some  real  difficulty  of  finding  substantial  tenants, 
has  aggravated  the  discontents  of  the  country,  and  thrown 
the  most  serious  obstacles  in  the  way  of  an  improved  system 
of  cultivation.  The  consequence  of  this  error  is  the  certain 
loss  of  all  that  future  source  of  rent  to  the  landlord,  and 
wealth  to  the  country,  which  arises  from  increase  of  produce. 

The  second  error  to  which  the  landlord  is  liable,  is  that  of 
mistaking  a  mere  temporary  rise  of  prices,  for  a  rise  of 
sufficient  duration  to  warrant  an  increase  of  rents.  It 
frequently  happens,  that  a  scarcity  of  one  or  two  years, 
or  an  unusual  demand  arising  from  any  other  cause,  may 
raise  the  price  of  raw  produce  to  a  height,  at  which  it  can- 
not be  maintained.  And  the  farmers,  who  take  land  under 
the  influence  of  such  prices,  will,  in  the  return  of  a  mere 
natural  state  of  things,  probably  break,  and  leave  their  farms 
in  a  ruined  and  exhausted  state.  These  short  periods  of 
high  price  are  of  great  importance  in  generating  capital  upon 
the  land,  if  the  farmers  are  allowed  to  have  the  advantage 
of  them;  but,  if  they  are  ||  grasped  at  prematurely  by  the  57 
landlord,  capital  is  destroyed,  instead  of  being  accumulated; 
and  both  the  landlord  and  the  country  incur  a  loss,  instead 
of  gaining  a  benefit. 

A  similar  caution  is  necessary  in  raising  rents,  even  when 
the  rise  of  prices  seems  as  if  it  would  be  permanent.  In 
the  progress  of  prices  and  rents,  rent  ought  always  to  be  a 
little  behind;  not  only  to  afford  the  means  of  ascertaining 
whether  the  rise  be  temporary  or  permanent,  but  even  in 
the  latter  case,  to  give  a  little  time  for  the  accumulation  of 
capital  on  the  land,  of  which  the  landholder  is  sure  to  feel 
the  full  benefit  in  the  end. 

There  is  no  just  reason  to  believe,  that  if  the  lands  were 
to  give  the  whole  of  their  rents  to  their  tenants,  com  would 


46  Thomas  Egbert  Malthus 

be  more  plentiful  and  cheaper.  If  the  view  of  the  subject, 
taken  in  the  preceding  inquiry,  be  correct,  the  last  additions 
made  to  our  home  produce  are  sold  at  the  cost  of  production 
and  the  same  quantity  could  not  be  produced  from  our  own 
soil  at  a  less  price,  even  without  rent.  The  effect  of  trans- 
ferring all  rents  to  tenants,  would  be  merely  the  turning 
them  into  gentlemen,  and  tempting  them  to  cultivate  their 
farms  under  the  superintendance  of  careless  and  uninter- 
ested bailiffs,  instead  of  the  vigilant  eye  of  a  master,  who  is 

58  deterred  from  carelessness  by  the  fear  ||  of  ruin,  and  stim- 
ulated to  exertion  by  the  hope  of  a  competence.  The  most 
numerous  instances  of  successful  industry,  and  well  directed 
knowledge,  have  been  found  among  those  who  have  paid  a 
fair  rent  for  their  lands;  who  have  embarked  the  whole  of 
their  capital  in  their  undertaking;  and  who  feel  it  their  duty 
to  watch  over  it  with  unceasing  care,  and  add  to  it  whenever  it 
is  possible.  But  when  this  laudable  spirit  prevails  among  a 
tenantry,  it  is  of  the  very  utmost  importance  to  the  progress 
of  riches,  and  the  permanent  increase  of  rents,  that  it  should 
have  the  power  as  well  as  the  will  to  accumulate ;  and  an  in- 
terval of  advancing  prices,  not  immediately  followed  by  a  pro- 
portionate rise  of  rents,  furnishes  the  most  effective  powers  of 
this  kind.  These  intervals  of  advancing  prices,  when  not 
succeeded  by  retrograde  movements,  most  powerfully  contri- 
bute to  the  progress  of  national  wealth.  And  practically 
I  should  say,  that  when  once  a  character  of  industry  and 
economy  has  been  established,  temporary  high  profits  are  a 
more  frequent  and  powerful  source  of  accumulation,  than 
either  an  increased  spirit  of  saving,  or  any  other  cause  that 

59  can  be  named.*  It  is  the  ||  only  cause  which  seems  capable 
of  accounting  for  the  prodigious  accumulation  among  indi- 

*  Adam  Smith  notices  the  bad  effects  of  high  profits  on  the 
habits  of  the  capitalist."  They  may  perhaps  sometimes  occasion 
extravagance;  but  generally,  I  should  say,  that  extravagant  habits 
were  a  more  frequent  cause  of  a  scarcity  of  capital  and  high 
profits,  than  high  profits  of  extravagant  habits. 


The  Nature  and  Progress  of  Rent  47 

viduals,  which  must  have  taken  place  in  this  country  during 
the  last  twenty  years,  and  which  has  left  us  with  a  greatly 
increased  capital,  notwithstanding  our  vast  annual  destruc- 
tion of  stock,  for  so  long  a  period. 

Among  the  temporary  causes  of  high  price,  which  may 
sometimes  mislead  the  landlord,  it  is  necessary  to  notice 
irregidarities  in  the  currency.  When  they  are  likely  to  be 
of  short  duration,  they  must  be  treated  by  the  landlord  in 
the  same  manner  as  years  of  unusual  demand.  But  when 
they  continue  so  long  as  they  have  done  in  this  country,  it  is 
impossible  for  the  landlord  to  do  otherwise  than  proportion 
his  rent  accordingly,  and  take  the  chance  of  being  obliged 
to  lessen  it  again,  on  the  return  of  the  currency  to  its  nat- 
ural state. 

The  present  fall  in  the  price  of  bullion,  and  the  improved 
state  of  our  exchanges,  proves,  in  my  opinion,  that  a  much 
greater  part  of  the  difference  between  gold  and  paper  was 
owing  to  commercial  causes,  and  a  peculiar  demand  ||  for  60 
bullion  than  was  supposed  by  many  persons;  but  they  By  no 
means  prove  that  the  issue  of  paper  did  not  allow  of  a  higher 
rise  of  prices  than  could  be  permanently  maintained.  Al- 
ready a  retrograde  movement,  not  exclusively  occasioned  by 
the  importations  of  corn,  has  been  sensibly  felt;  and  it  must 
go  somewhat  further  before  we  can  return  to  payments  in 
specie.  Those  who  let  their  lands  during  the  period  of'  the 
greatest  difference  between  notes  and  bullion,  must  probably 
lower  them,  whichever  system  may  be  adopted  with  regard  to 
the  trade  in  corn.  These  retrograde  movements  are  always 
unfortunate;  and  high  rents,  partly  occasioned  by  causes  of 
this  kind,  greatly  embarrass  the  regular  march  of  prices,  and 
confound  the  calculations  both  of  the  farmer  and  landlord. 

With  the  cautions  here  noticed  in  letting  farms,  the  land- 
lord may  fairly  look  forward  to  a  gradual  and  permanent  in- 
crease of  rents;  and,  in  general,  not  only  to  an  increase  pro- 
portioned to  the  rise  in  the  price  of  produce,  but  to  a  still 
further  increase,  arising  from  an  increase  in  the  quantity  of 
produce. 


48  Thomas  Robert  Malthus 

If  in  taking  rents,  which  are  equally  fair  for  the  landlord 
and  tenant,  it  is  found  that  in  successive  lettings  they  do  not 
61  rise  rather  more  than  in  proportion  to  the  price  of  pro-  || 
duce,  it  will  generally  be  owing  to  heavy  taxation. 

Though  it  is  by  no  means  true,  as  stated  by  the  Econom- 
ists, that  all  taxes  fall  on  the  neat  rents  of  the  landlords, 
yet  it  is  certainly  true  that  they  are  more  frequently  taxed 
both  indirectly  as  well  as  directly,  and  have  less  power  of 
relieving  themselves,  than  any  other  order  of  the  state.  And 
as  they  pay,  as  they  certainly  do,  many  of  the  taxes  which  fall 
on  the  capital  of  the  farmer  and  the  wages  of  the  labourer, 
as  well  as  those  directly  imposed  on  themselves;  they  must 
necessarily  feel  it  in  the  diminution  of  that  portion  of  the 
whole  produce,  which  under  other  circumstances  would  have 
fallen  to  their  share.  But  the  degree  in  which  the  different 
classes  of  society  are  affected  by  taxes,  is  in  itself  a  copious 
subject,  belonging  to  the  general  principles  of  taxation, 
and  deserves  a  separate  inquiry. 


THE  END. 


Printed  by  DOVE,  32,  St.  John's  Square. 


NOTES 

*(page  5)  "Among  others,  I  allude  more  particularly  to  Mr. 
Anderson,  who,  in  a  Calm  Investigation  of  the  Circumstances 
which  have  led  to  the  present  Scarcity  of  Orain  in  Britain,  (pub- 
lished in  1801,)  has  laboured,  with  extraordinary  earnestness,  and 
I  believe  with  the  best  intentions  possible,  to  impress  this  curious 
truth  on  the  minds  of  his  countrymen.  The  particular  position 
which  he  attempts  to  prove  is,  that  an  increase  of  population  in 
any  state  whose  fields  have  not  been  made  to  attain  their  highest 
possible  degree  of  productiveness,  (o  thing  that  probably  has 
never  yet  been  seen  on  this  globe,)  will  necessarily  have  its  means 
of  subsistence  rather  augmented,  than  diminished,  by  that  aug- 
mentation of  its  population ;  and  the  reverse.  The  proposition  is, 
to  be  sure,  expressed  rather  obscurely;  but,  from  the  context,  his 
meaning  evidently  is,  that  every  increase  of  population  tends  to 
increase  relative  plenty,  and  vice  versa.  He  concludes  his  proofs 
by  observing,  that,  if  the  facts  which  he  has  thus  brought  for- 
ward and  connected,  do  not  serve  to  remove  the  fears_of  those 
who  doubt  the  possibility  of  this  country  producing  abundance 
to  sustain  its  Increasing  population,  were  it  to  augment  in  a 
ratio  greatly  more  progressive  than  it  has  yet  done,  he  should 
doubt,  whether  they  could  be  convinced  of  it,  were  one  even  to 
rise  from  the  dead  to  tell  them  so.  Mr.  A.  is,  perhaps,  Justified  in 
this  doubt,  from  the  known  incredulity  of  the  age,  which  might 
cause  people  to  remain  unconvinced  in  both  cases.  I  agree  with 
Mr.  A.  however,  entirely,  respecting  the  importance  of  directing 
a  greater  part  of  the  national  Industry  to  agriculture;  but  from 
the  circumstances  of  its  being  possible  for  a  country  with  a  cer- 
tain direction  of  its  industry,  always  to  export  com,  although  it 
may  be  very  populous,  he  has  been  led  into  the  strange  error  of 
supposing,  that  an  agricultural  country  could  support  an  un- 
checked population." 

See  "An  Essay  on  the  Principle  of  Population;  or,  a  view  of 
its  past  and  present  effects  on  human  happiness;  with  an  inquiry 
into  our  prospects  respecting  the  future  removal  or  mitigation  of 
the  evils  which  it  occasions  "  (a  new  edition,  very  much  enlarged. 
London:  1803),  p.  473  n. 

'(page  11)  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  bk.  I,  ch.  vi;  in  Thorold 
Rogers'  edition,  vol.  I,  pp.  54-55. 

'(page  12)  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  bk.  I,  ch.  xi;  in  Thorold 
Rogers'  edition,  vol.  I,  pp.  153,  156-157. 

*(page  13)  "  Traite  d'Economie  Politique,  ou  simple  exposition 
de  la  maniere  dont  se  forment,  se  distribuent  et  se  consomment 
les  richesses;  seconde  edition  entierement  refondue  et  augmentee 
d'un  epitome  des  principes  fondamentaux  de  I'economie  politique: 
par  Jean-Baptiste  Say,  ex-membre  du  Tribunat "  (2  vols.  Paris: 
1814).  The  first  edition  was  published  in  1803.  The  passage  as 
quoted  by  Malthus  contains  minor  typographical  inaccuracies. 


/ 


< 


60  Notes 


"(page  13)  "  De  la  Richesse  Commerciale,  ou  principes  d'econ- 
omie  politique,  appliques  a  la  legislation  du  commerce.  Par  J.  C. 
L.  Simonde,  Membre  du  Conseil  de  Commerce,  Arts  et  Agriculture 
du  Leman,  de  I'Academie  Royale  des  Georgofiles  de  Florence,  et 
de  la  Societe  d'Agriculture  de  Geneve"  (2  vols.  Geneva,  1803). 
The. passage  as  quoted  by  Malthus  contains  minor  typographical 
inaccuracies.  On  this  page,  as  elsewhere  (cf.  pp.  17,  29,  39, 
above),  consecutive  marks  have  been  used  where  two  foot-notes, 
occurring  upon  different  pages  in  Malthus'  text,  have  fallen  upon 
a  single  page  as  reprinted. 

'(page  13)  By  a  typographical  error  in  Malthus'  text,  "  quel- 
quechore." 

Mpage  14)  "An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes  of  the 
Wealth  of  Nations;  by  Adam  Smith,  LL.  D.  and  F.  R.  S.  of  London 
and  Edinburgh:  one  of  the  commissioners  of  his  majesty's  cus- 
toms in  Scotland;  and  formerly  professor  of  moral  philosophy  in 
the  University  of  Glasgow.  In  three  volumes.  With  notes  and 
an  additional  volume,  by  David  Buchanan"  (Edinburgh,  1814). 

*(page  15)     By  a  typographical  error  in  Malthus'  text,  "he." 

•(page  15)     By  a  typographical  error  in  Malthus'  text,  "212." 

*'(page  16)  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  bk.  I,  ch.  xi;  in  Thorold 
Rogers'  edition,  vol.  I.  p.  174.  In  addition  to  slight  typographical 
differences,  the  sentence  in  Adam  Smith's  text  does  not  contain 
the  word  "  comparatively." 

"(page  25)  "A  Treatise  on  the  Wealth,  Power  and  Resources, 
of  the  British  Empire,  in  every  quarter  of  the  world,  including 
the  East  Indies:  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  funding  system  ex- 
plained; with  observations  on  the  national  resources  for  the  bene- 
ficial employment  of  a  redundant  population,  and  for  rewarding 
the  military  and  naval  oflBcers,  soldiers,  and  seamen,  for  their 
services  to  their  country  during  the  late  war.  Illustrated  by 
copious  statistical  tables,  constructed  on  a  new  plan,  and  exhibit- 
ing a  collected  view  of  the  different  subjects  discussed  in  this 
work.  By  P.  Colquhoun,  LL.  D."  (London,  1814).  In  the  follow- 
ing year  (1815)  appeared  "the  second  edition,  with  additions 
and  corrections." 

"(page  27)  A  year  later  Malthus  sought  confirmatory  evi- 
dence upon  this  point.  Under  date  of  February  6,  1816,  he  wrote 
from  Haileybury  to  Arthur  Young:  "  You  would  very  much  oblige 
me  if  you  would  give  me  your  opinion  on  the  following  point. 
Whether  the  agricultural  capital  which  has  so  much  increased 
the  produce  of  the  country  during  the  last  20  years,  and  raised 
the  rent  of  land,  independently  of  any  change  in  the  value  of 
the  currency,  has  been  furnished  chiefly  by  tenants  or  landlords? 
I  wish  much  to  ascertain  this  point,  and  know  no  person  to  whom 
I  can  apply  with  so  fair  a  prospect  of  getting  the  information  I 
want,  as  to  you."  Under  date  of  May  26,  Malthus  acknowledged 
Young's  reply:  "Though  I  had  obtained  some  information  on 
the  subject  on  which  I  wrote  to  you,  yet  I  am  happy  to  have 


Notes  51 


it  sanctioned  by  your  opinion  and  superior  authority.  What  you 
state  agrees  with  the  result  of  the  conversations  I  have  occa- 
sionally had  with  persons  who  have  attended  to  the  progress  of 
agricultural  improvements  of  late  years  and  I  believe  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  much  the  greater  part  of  the  capital  that  has  been 
employed  in  these  improvements  has  been  generated  on  the  land, 
and  been  occasioned  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  by  the  high 
prices." 

Malthus'  letters  to  Young,  which  are  not  without  interest  in 
other  particulars,  are  in  the  British  Museum:  A.dd.  MSS.  35,132, 
f.  421;   35,133,  ff.  187-188,  318-319,  456-457. 

"(page  29)     By  a  typographical  error  in  Malthus  text,  "  ppors." 

"(page  29)  "  An  Account  of  the  Systems  of  Husbandry  adopted 
in  the  more  improved  districts  of  Scotland;  with  some  observa- 
tions on  the  improvements  of  which  they  are  susceptible.  Drawn 
up  for  the  consideration  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  with  a  view 
of  explaining  how  far  those  systems  are  applicable  to  the  less 
cultivated  parts  in  England,  and  Scotland.  By  the  Right  Honour- 
able Sir  John  Sinclair,  Bart.,  M.  P.,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Agriculture"  (Edinburgh,  1812). 

"(page  29)  "General  Report  of  the  Agricultural  State,  and 
Political  Circumstances,  of  Scotland.  Drawn  up  for  the  consid- 
eration of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  and  Internal  Improvement, 
under  the  directions  of  The  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Sinclair,  Bart. 
The  President  "  (3  vols.  Edinburgh,  1814).  An  "  Appendix  to  the 
General  Report"   (2  vols.     Edinburgh,  1814)  was  also  published. 

'"(page  29)  "Reports  respecting  Grain,  and  the  Corn  Laws: 
viz:  first  and  second  reports  from  the  Lords  Committees,  ap- 
pointed to  enquire  into  the  state  of  the  growth,  commerce,  and 
consumption  of  grain,  and  all  laws  relating  thereto;  to  whom 
were  referred  the  several  petitions,  presented  to  the  House  this 
Session,  respecting  the  Corn  Laws. — 25  July,  1814.  Communi- 
cated by  The  Lords,  23d  November,  1814.  Ordered,  by  the  House 
of  Commons,  to  be  printed,  23  November  1814"   (London,  1814). 

"(page  35)  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  bk.  I,  ch.  xi;  in  Thorold 
Rogers'  edition,  vol.  I,  pp.  185-186,  227. 

"(page  38)  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  bk.  I,  ch.  xi;  in  Thorold 
Rogers'  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  252. 

"(page  40)     By  a  typographical  error  in  Malthus'  text,  "no." 

**(page  45)  Cf.  "Reports  of  the  Lords  Committees"  {v.  note 
16,  above),  pp.  20,  59,  80-81,  89-92. 

^(page  46)  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  bk.  IV,  ch.  vii;  in  Thorold 
Rogers'  edition,  vol.  II,  pp.  194-195. 


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